m 


i 


By  PRACTICAL  TEACHERS 


llnioprBitii  uf  Seblanba  tibrary 
Spo.  JFranU  C  ?lloiupra 

Natiuital  (Sity.  Ulaltfuntia 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 


SUCCESSFUL 
TEACHING 


Fifteen  Studies  by  Practical  Teachers 
Prize- Winners  in  the  National 
Educational    Contest    of   1905 

WITH    AN   INTRODUCTION 


JAMES   M.   GREENWOOD 

Superintendent  of  Schools  in  Kansas  City,  Mo.,  Author  of"  The 

Principles  0/  Education  Practically  Applied  "  ''A  History 

0/  Arithmetic,  Algebra,  and  Geometry,"  etc. 


3  ^  <-/   ^cf 


FUNK  ^  WAGNALLS  COMPANY 

NEW    YORK    AND    LONDON 

1906 


/O  '    V-  3  2. 


Copyright,  1906,  by 

FUNK  &  WAGNALLS  COMPANY 

[Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America] 

Published  April,  1906 


<=V- 


LB 


PUBLISHERS'    NOTE 

The  essays  embraced  in  this  volume  are  the 
results  of  a  contest  initiated  by  the  publishers 
in  the  spring  of  1905.  Cash  prizes  were  offered 
for  the  best  essays  on  the  subjects  named,  all  of 
which  were  to  have  close  relation  to  modern 
methods  in  teaching,  and  in  so  far  as  possible 
were  to  be  based  on  personal  experience.  Each 
essay  was  limited  as  to  its  length — in  some  in- 
stances to  2,000  words ;  in  a  few  others  to  2,500. 

Responses  came  from  all  parts  of  the  United 
States,  the  contestants  being  teachers  in  gram- 
mar and  high  schools,  and  in  colleges  and  uni- 
versities, both  male  and  female.  Owing  to  the 
large  number  of  essays  submitted,  considerable 
time  was  found  necessary  in  making  an  adequate 
examination  of  them  with  a  view  to  the  awards. 
It  was  not  until  the  beginning  of  1906  that  a 
final  disposition  was  made  of  the  whole  series, 
and  the  prizes  were  awarded  and  the  amounts 
paid. 

\.  James    M.     Greenwood,    Superintendent    of 

Schools  in  Kansas  City,  Mo.,  was  asked  to  read 
the  essays  and  prepare  for  them  an  introduc- 
tion, giving  such  co-ordination  and  coherency 

6 


a48S'75 


PUBLISHEES'    NOTE 

to  the  whole  subject  of  modern  methods  in  teach- 
ing as,  in  his  judgment,  might  properly  be  done 
in  an  article  of  moderate  length,  accompanying 
the  essays. 

The  book  thus  brought  together  is  now  offered 
to  the  public,  in  the  expectation  that  teachers 
and  others  interested  in  the  most  advanced  and 
successful  methods  will  find  the  essays  and  Mr. 
Greenwood's  introduction  of  exceptional  inter- 
est and  value. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Publishers'  Note 5 

Introduction  ,     , 10 

BY  JAMES   M.    GKEENWOOD 

Personality  as  a  Factor  in  Teaching 27 

BY  H.    MONTAGUE  DONNER 

The  Value  of  Psychology  in  Teaching 39 

BY  J.    J.    SHAKPE 

How  Best  to  Develop  Character  in  Children    ...     53 

BY  EMILY   S.    LOUD 

How  Best  to  Gain  and  Keep  Control  of  Pupils    ...     63 

BY   A.    J.    GROUT 

How  to  Teach  Children  to  Think 73 

BY  AGNES  C.    RALPH 

Advantages  of  Memory  Work 83 

BY  W.    C.    HEWITT 

How  Best  to  Teach  Concentration 95 

BY  KATE  WALTON 

How  to  Develop  the  Conversational  Powers  of  Pupils.  107 

BY  FLORA  ELMER 

The  Place  of  Biography  in  General  Education     .    .     .  117 

BY  GEOFFREY  F.    MORGAN 

The  Art  of  Story-Telling  and  Its  Uses  in  the  School 

Room 135 

BY  MIZPAH   8.    GREENE 

Nature  Studies :  The  Various  Methods;  of  Teaching 

Nature 135 

BY  CAROLINE  C.    LEIGHTON 

7 


CONTENTS 

PAOK 

The  Teaching  of  Phonetics 149 

BY   ZYLPHA   EASTMAN 

The  Value  of  Word  Study  and  How  to  Direct  it      .     .  157 

BY  E.    S.    GERHARD 

The  Educational  Influence  and  Value  of  Manual  Train- 
ing   173 

BY   BURTON    M.    BALCH 

How  Best  to  Acquaint  Pupils  with  What  is  Going  on 

in  the  World 187 

BY  JOHN   M.   VAN  DYKK 


Introduction 

BY   JAMES    M.    GREENWOOD 


3^  ^  Vo" 


INTRODUCTION 


THE  OBJECT 


The  essays  in  this  volume  are  intended  to 
help  teachers  in  their  daily  work;  to  give  them 
broader  views  of  teaching  certain  subjects,  bet- 
ter methods  of  presentation,  and  deeper  insight 
into  the  thoughts,  feelings,  emotions,  desires, 
passions,  and  aspirations  of  a  developing  human 
soul. 

Each  essay  sets  forth  in  clear  language  the 
view  of  the  author,  and  how  in  theory  and 
practise  a  certain  phase  of  educational  work, 
either  of  subject-matter,  or  the  underlying  prin- 
ciples upon  which  it  is  based,  may  be  used  by 
the  teacher,  or  practised  by  the  child  to  further 
his  progress. 

One  of  the  chief  benefits  arising  from  thought- 
ful teaching  is  the  grasp  it  gives  the  teacher 
over  subject-matter,  and  in  directing  the  ener- 
gies of  the  pupils.  Thinking  is  hard  work,  and 
education  is  not  a  matter  of  chance,  but  a  pur- 
poseful effort  toward  a  direct  end.    It  consists 

11 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

in  what  one  can  do,  or  is  enabled  to  do,  rather 
than  what  one  is,  or  what  one  knows.  Since 
education  is  a  dynamic  force,  it  implies  skill 
to  use  what  one  possesses, — skill  to  use  one's 
powers  forcefully  on  new  questions  and  situa- 
tions as  they  arise.  The  underlying  fact  in 
educational  systems  to-day  is  to  perfect  the 
state  by  perfecting  the  individuals  composing 
the  state  through  culture,  knowledge,  wisdom, 
— into  doing  one's  life-work  well. 

The  science  of  education  is  founded  on  the 
hypothesis  of  a  continuous  period  of  growth. 
In  this  sense  the  human  mind  is  a  growth.  In 
its  working  processes  the  mind  is  so  constituted 
that  in  the  act  of  acquiring  knowledge  by  its 
own  inherent  energy,  it  thinks  things  or  notions 
that  are  similar,  into  groups,  while  those  having 
unlike  or  dissimilar  properties  are  separated.  As 
an  illustration : — the  pupil  in  analyzing  a  sen- 
tence in  English  Grammar,  never  literally  sepa- 
rates the  words,  phrases,  and  clauses  into  essen- 
tial, subordinate,  and  connecting  elements,  but  he 
thinks  them  as  separated;  but  in  handling  ma- 
terial objects,  a  physical  division  frequently 
occurs.  Herein  lurks  a  possible  danger,  namely, 
that  a  pupil  may  be  kept  so  long  working  with 
thing  knowledge,  that  he  loses  the  power  to 
work  with  perceptions,  conceptions,  inferences, 

12 


INTRODUCTION 

and  of  drawing  conclusions  from  data  given,  or 
to  take  hold  of  a  complex  problem  or  situation, 
and  divide  each  difficulty  into  as  many  simple 
portions  as  possible  in  order  to  examine  each 
separately,  and  to  reach  eventually  a  correct 
conclusion. 

This  presupposes  an  orderly  plan  of  investi- 
gation, beginning  with  the  simplest  and  most 
obvious  cases  first,  so  that  by  easy  steps  one  goes 
on  building  up  a  more  complex  whole,  till  all  the 
parts  are  shaped  into  a  symmetrical  whole  as 
constructed  by  the  mind  into  a  body  of  knowl- 
edge. Knowledge  is  thus  built  up  in  the  mind 
into  groups  and  masses,  if  it  is  to  be  of  real 
value  to  the  possessor. 

MEMORY   CULTURE 

Not  many  years  ago  it  became  quite  the  fash- 
ion in  many  educational  circles  to  decry  mem- 
ory education  in  season  and  out  of  season.  This 
opposition,  like  many  other  ideas  that  have 
swept  over  the  country  periodically,  had  some 
foundation  in  fact  for  its  existence.  The  real 
objection,  instead  of  a  wholesale  condemnation 
of  memory  as  an  important  attribute  of  the 
human  mind,  should  have  been  filed  against 
the  abuse  or  misuse  of  memory  itself. 

13 


SUCCESSFUL   TEACHING 

A  very  brief  analysis  of  the  function  of  the 
memory  will  show  what  office  it  performs  dur- 
ing the  whole  educative  period.  What  the  mind 
retains  of  all  its  former  mental  acts,  states,  and 
feelings  as  impressions  received  from  the  ex- 
ternal world,  is  the  raw  material  out  of  which 
one  constructs  the  real  world  in  which  he  lives. 
To  observe  sensations,  perceptions,  and  concep- 
tions, whether  from  the  external  or  mental 
world,  without  the  power  of  holding  the  knowl- 
edge thus  gained,  is  to  be  a  mental  imbecile. 
Knowledge  that  is  a  momentary  acquisition  and 
then  vanishes,  is  not  knowledge  in  any  sense, 
and  the  effect  is  precisely  the  same  as  if  it  had 
not  been. 

The  object  that  produces  the  perception, 
whether  of  internal  or  external  origin,  may  be 
removed,  but  the  recollection  of  it  abides,  and 
is  an  enduring  possession  of  the  mind  which  may 
be  used  at  any  time.  Whether  an  impression  is 
made  in  the  mind  lasts  or  fades  away,  is  an 
index  of  the  mind's  retentiveness,  or  its  power 
of  holding  impressions  in  solution  after  the  pro- 
ducing causes  have  been  removed.  This  power 
depends  primarily  on  the  condition  of  the  brain 
centers  and  their  modes  of  activity.  The  re- 
tentive memory  is  that  form  which  produces 
past  impressions  whenever  they  are  needed,  and 
produces  them  accurately. 

14 


INTRODUCTION 

Many  hold  an  opposite  opinion  and  contend 
that  the  child  is  to  observe  and  feel,  but  he  is 
to  commit  nothing  to  memory  except  as  he 
wishes.  Were  it  possible  for  humanity  to  act 
on  this  principle  of  learning  exclusively,  all 
knowledge  would  be  swept  away.  Even  the 
learner  would  forget  his  own  name, — he  would 
not  know  mother,  home,  or  any  of  those  asso- 
ciations which  make  up  the  greater  part  of  life. 
There  would  be  no  data  whatever  for  the  mind 
to  reason  upon.  Fixed  or  stored-up  informa- 
tion would  nowhere  be  found.  All  that  could 
be  possible  under  such  limitations  would  be  in- 
stantaneous impressions,  vanishing  as  rapidly  as 
they  came.  The  memory  acts  as  a  sort  of  men- 
tal wheel-barrow  for  the  transportation  of  ex- 
periences, but  it  is  out  of  this  gathered-up  ma- 
terial that  the  mind,  by  virtue  of  its  organizing 
and  selective  power,  arranges  and  classifies  its 
material. 

The  whole  sphere  of  reproductive  knowledge 
answers  in  a  general  way  to  what  is  called  mem- 
ory. To  retain  an  impression  of  a  thing  is  to 
remember  it;  to  be  able  to  reproduce  a  descrip- 
tion of  it  in  words,  or  in  a  picture,  owing  to  the 
accuracy  or  faithfulness  with  which  it  is  exe- 
cuted, is  a  test  of  one's  retentive  and  repro- 
ductive power.     To  take  hold  of  an  object  of 

15 


SUCCESSFUL   TEACHING 

thought  and  make  it  a  part  of  one's  mental 
furniture  by  fusing  it  with  knowledge  already 
possessed,  is  the  most  important  function  of 
memory  products.  Before  there  can  be  repro- 
duction, there  must  be  acquisition,  and  repeti- 
tion follows  as  the  chief  act  in  fixing  knowledge 
after  it  has  been  once  acquired. 

To  understand  and  to  control  these  agencies 
with  the  view  of  getting  the  most  substantial 
and  abiding  results  in  definite  knowledge,  should 
be  the  chief  aim  of  teachers  in  directing  the 
learner  in  the  pursuit  of  truth,  or  the  harmony 
of  thought  with  its  object.  For  knowledge  to  be 
lasting,  the  impression  must  be  clear-cut  and 
deep,  and  properly  attended  to  at  the  time. 
Memory  being  preeminently  the  storage  power 
of  the  mind,  and  perhaps  most  active  in  child- 
hood and  early  youth,  during  this  plastic  period 
memory  processes  are  the  easiest, — hence  truths, 
elegant  and  soul-inspiring  extracts,  principles 
and  definite  facts,  should  be  fixed  in  the  mem- 
ory forever.  Any  system  of  education  which 
depreciates  the  proper  use  of  the  memory  in 
the  acquisition  and  retention  of  knowledge,  is 
to  misconceive  entirely  the  proper  function  of 
the  mind  itself. 

In  answer  to  the  inquiry — what  constitutes  a 
good  memory?  the  following  characteristics,  at 

16 


INTRODUCTION 

least,  may  be  mentioned:  First,  quickness  in 
applying  the  mind  to  a  subject,  and  excluding 
all  other  subjects,  in  gaining  knowledge;  sec- 
ond, a  good  grip  on  what  is  once  learned  and 
retaining  it ;  third,  readiness  in  recalling  exactly 
what  has  been  learned,  said,  or  done,  and  the 
ability  to  use  it  whenever  it  is  needed.  If  edu- 
cation be  the  preparation  for  complete  living, 
then  a  good  memory  of  facts  and  principles  is 
of  great  value. 

The  child  needs  to  be  guided  by  successive 
steps  to  right  conclusions,  not  only  about  the 
things  he  learns  from  books  and  his  own  exper- 
iences, but  to  hold  in  check  a  tendency  in  some 
minds  to  give  answers  impulsively  without  hav- 
ing first  thought  them  out,  step  by  step,  till  a 
right  conclusion  is  reached.  Thinking  should 
not  be  regarded  as  an  objectionable  process, 
even  by  children.  A  lack  of  patience  to  take 
hold  of  a  problem  and  proceed  with  its  investi- 
gation patiently,  is  one  of  the  strongest  evi- 
dences of  the  shallow  training  in  too  many  of 
our  schools.  Education,  then,  in  the  final  analy- 
sis, consists  in  training  the  pupil  into  right 
habits  of  thinking,  acting,  and  sticking  to  a 
thing  when  one  starts  in  with  it,  till  the  end  is 
reached. 


17 


SUCCESSFUL   TEACHING 

SELF-CONTROL 

There  is  a  wide  diversity  of  opinion  on  the 
question  of  self-control  of  children,  and  to  what 
extent  it  should  be  exercised  over  them.  One 
idea  is  that  it  should  be  developed  or  impressed 
by  unquestioning  submission  to  parental  or 
school  authority;  another  is  that  untrammeled 
spontaneity  is  nature's  method  of  teaching  the 
necessity  of  self-control.  Public  opinion  at  home 
and  in  the  school-room  ranges  over  this  wide 
area  indicated. 

There  is  something  in  the  sturdiness  of  the 
Scotch  character  that  challenges  the  admiration 
of  all  thinking  men  and  women  in  this  country. 
Unswerving  adherence  to  a  principle  has  been 
a  marked  characteristic  of  that  people.  The 
moral  education  instilled  into  their  children 
made  them  strong,  but  sometimes  very  narrow. 
The  lad  is  governed  by  the  iron-will  of  the 
father.  His  dread  of  disobedience  gradually 
develops  into  a  warm  veneration  for  the  ma- 
jesty of  the  law.  The  subordination  to  human 
law  rises  into  a  devout  religious  feeling, — the 
solid  basis  of  the  Scotch  individual  and  national 
character,  which  places  law  against  license,  and 
recognizes  the  power  of  the  Omnipotent  as  the 
highest  expression  of  justice. 

18 


INTRODUCTION 

No  one  will  deny  that  there  is  power  in  such 
discipline,  and  that  it  was  this  sturdy  element 
in  our  New  England  ancestry  that  permeated 
so  thoroughly  the  character  of  the  American 
people.  But  another  conception  has  grown  up 
in  many  American  homes  of  recent  years  in 
favor  of  the  free  spontaneity  of  childhood, — 
minus  parental  conti'ol.  Uncontrolled  impulses 
and  desires  too  often  mean  moral  and  social 
anarchy.  Children  should  be  wisely  controlled, 
for  the  Avise  and  definite  control  by  a  superior 
will,  developes  the  will-power  of  the  child,  and 
qualifies  him  to  direct,  in  a  large  measure,  his 
own  will-power  when  he  reaches  maturity. 

The  whole  school  training,  as  well  as  the  home 
training,  should  be  a  preparation  for  self-con- 
trol. The  child's  will  is  not  sufficiently  enlight- 
ened to  guide  his  activities  and  control  his  pow- 
ers. Uncontrolled  force  leads  to  arrested  de- 
velopment, a  worn-out  human  remnant,  or  along 
a  straight  road  into  the  human  scrap-heap.  Ev- 
ery conscious  right  act  strengthens  the  child's 
will-power  and  self-control,  and  every  wrong 
act  weakens  them.  By  degrees  the  external 
authority  should  be  diminished  till  the  young 
man  or  young  woman  has  learned  self-mastery ; 
but  the  final  upshot  of  it  all  is,  that  he  who 
violates  a  law  inflicts  the  penalty  on  himself. 

19 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

NATURE  STUDIES 

To  teach  a  pupil  how  to  see,  how  to  hear,  how 
to  join  his  thoughts  together,  either  in  spoken 
or  written  discourse,  and  how  to  express  them 
in  fit  language,  covers  a  large  sphere  of  school 
work.  Nine-tenths  of  all  his  knowledge  of  na- 
ture comes  through  sight  and  hearing,  and  per- 
haps six  per  cent,  through  the  sense  of  smell. 
Education  is  preeminently  the  science  which 
should  interpret  how  children  grow,  gain  knowl- 
edge from  books,  people,  nature,  and  how  they 
assort  and  assimulate  what  they  learn.  Nature, 
as  a  teacher,  is  unsympathetic.  She  does  not  care 
whether  the  learner  hurts  himself  or  not.  At 
no  time  does  she  anxiously  interfere  to  prevent 
serious  consequences  that  follow  certain  actions. 
Nature's  instruction  is  self-instruction  without 
any  explanations.  The  child  through  his  own 
experiences,  if  he  keeps  his  eyes  and  ears  at 
work,  assisted  by  his  parents,  teachers,  play- 
mates, finds  out  something  about  many  things. 
Nature's  teachings  are  also  desultory.  Lessons 
of  all  kinds  are  mingled  in  the  greatest  profu- 
sion as  well  as  confusion.  Iler  main  business 
seems  to  be  the  training  of  powers  rather  than 
the  logical  acquisition  of  labeled  knowledge. 
The  child  at  six  or  seven  is  a  bundle  of  all  kinds 
of  picked-up,  unassorted  knowledge.     Owing  to 

20 


INTRODUCTION 

the  imperfect  development  of  the  special  senses, 
nature's  teachings  to  a  particular  child  may  be 
very  defective,  preventing  a  proper  apprecia- 
tion of  any  subject — even  to  the  total  darkness 
of  the  undertaking. 

As  much  as  ought  to  be  undertaken  with  chil- 
dren in  the  elementary  schools,  is  to  teach  them 
to  see  clearly  and  to  describe  accurately  so  far 
as  any  description  may  be  necessary,  whatever 
they  see,  hear,  smell,  taste,  or  feel.  Such  work 
should  not  be  palmed  off  as  science  teaching.  It 
is  a  simple  preparation  for  real  science  which 
will  come  later.  Nor  is  it  just  exactly  the  thing 
to  do  to  transport  the  farm,  including  all  that 
pertains  to  it,  into  the  crowded  city  schools  to 
teach  these  children  scientific  farming,  stock-rais- 
ing, and  gardening,  than  it  would  be  for  the 
country  school-teacher  to  attempt  to  teach  his 
pupils  elaborate  systems  of  banking,  practiced 
in  the  great  commercial  centers. 

The  country  child  learns  much  of  the  things 
he  sees  around  him  every  day.  He  is  restricted 
in  his  environment,  and  yet  he  may  get  glimpses 
of  city  life,  and  the  same  is  true  of  the  city 
child's  learning  something  of  country  life.  The 
swing  of  the  pendulum  is  on  the  wane  in  regard 
to  Nature  Study  as  compared  with  what  it  was 
a  few  years  ago,  and  there  is  great  danger  of  its 

21 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

swinging  backward  too  far.  The  real  place  of 
nature  study  is  as  an  adjunct  to  geography,  his- 
tory, and  the  reading  lessons  in  all  grades,  and 
it  should  be  incidentally  used  to  illustrate  and 
enforce  moral  and  industrial  instruction  in  con- 
duct and  character  building. 

READING 

The  teacher  must  keep  in  mind  that  the  pupil 
is  soon  to  help  himself,  and  that  he  must  become 
a  self-reliant  worker  and  interpreter  of  what  he 
reads,  and  that  words  stand  only  for  ideas,  which 
he  must  get  out  of  them.  Hence  the  special 
work  of  the  teacher  is  to  draw  out,  stimulate, 
strengthen  and  develop  the  thinking  powers  of 
the  pupil  that  he  may  interpret  written  thought 
for  himself.  Every  lesson  under  the  head  of  a 
skilful  teacher  should  exercise  all  the  intellectual 
faculties  of  the  pupil.  This  is  possible  on  the 
condition  that  the  teacher  prepares  every  lesson 
beforehand,  and  has  studied  it  in  all  its  bear- 
ings, and  is  ready  to  bring  out  all  its  striking 
points. 

In  reading,  the  pupil  should  be  instructed  not 
only  as  to  what  is  proper  in  interpretation  and 
expression  of  a  selection,  but  how  he  may  cor- 
rect his  own  faults  successfully,  and  to  criticise 

22 


INTRODUCTION 

and  avoid  the  faults  of  others.  The  thought 
element  involves  two  phases,  the  thought  of  the 
author  and  the  interpretation  of  this  thought 
as  understood  by  the  reader.  This  is  an  im- 
portant distinction.  As  preparatory  to  the  ex- 
pression of  thought,  it  is  assumed  that  the 
teacher  has  given  due  attention  to  the  physiolog- 
ical conditions  of  breathing,  position,  and  move- 
ments of  the  body,  and  has  a  complete  and  ac- 
curate mastery  of  all  the  sounds  of  the  letters 
of  our  language.  Thought  is  expressed  by  utter- 
ance and  action  in  reading  and  speaking.  Voice 
is  sound  produced  by  the  passage  of  air  through 
the  vocal  organs.  In  every  sound  of  the  voice 
there  are  certain  attributes  that  are  always  pres- 
ent. They  are  technically  called, — Form,  Qual- 
ity, Force,  Stress,  Pitch,  and  Movement. 

There  are  three  varieties  of  Form;  six  of 
Quality;  four  of  Force;  five  of  Stress;  five  of 
Pitch;  and  five  of  Movement,  making  twenty- 
eight  in  all.  While  it  is  remembered  that  these 
six  attributes  are  always  present  in  the  utter- 
ance of  every  sentence,  certainly  a  fine  oppor- 
tunity is  afforded  for  the  exercise  of  judgment 
in  every  reading  lesson,  to-wit :  attention,  analy- 
sis, comparison,  identification,  discrimination, 
classification,  and  synthesis. 

It  will  be  observed  that  not  only  the  thought 

23 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

element  in  the  selection  demands  attention,  but 
that  the  expression  also  takes  equal  rank  with 
it.  The  first  element  asks  the  question,  "What 
does  it  memif"  The  second,  "How  is  it  to  be 
expressed?"    The  third,  "Can  I  express  it?" 

While  it  is  not  desirable  to  employ  these  for- 
mal terms  in  the  lowest  grades  of  reading  classes, 
nevertheless  the  principles  should  be  practised, 
and  the  pupils  taught  to  use  their  own  powers 
in  applying  them.  The  pupil  must  be  taught 
to  read  so  as  to  be  heard,  understood,  and  felt. 

Reading  is  the  most  difficult  branch  in  the 
course  of  study  to  teach  properly,  and  it  is  in 
this  subject  that  the  best  opportunity  offers  for 
the  highest  forms  of  artistic  teaching. 

THE  TEACHER    IN   ACTION 

Teachers  must  have  clear  conceptions  of  the 
school  and  of  its  functions;  otherwise,  they 
work  at  random. 

The  work  of  the  teacher  is  narrowed  to  two 
sharp  divisions, — Thought  and  the  expression  of 
thought,  and  to  two  kinds  of  facts — facts  of 
nature  and  facts  of  mind.  Broadly  stated,  all 
education  has  to  do  either  with  the  development 
of  thought  or  the  expression  of  thought.  They 
are  radically  different.     It  is  the  province  of 

24 


INTRODUCTION 

the  teacher  to  know  this  difference  and  to  note 
defects  of  either  kind  if  existing  in  any  pupil, 
and  how  to  apply  the  proper  remedy.  They 
are  essentially  different  in  nature,  character, 
and  mode  of  development.  Thought  relations 
are  frequently  seized  intuitively.  Careful  ex- 
pression is  of  slower  growth.  The  painter  works 
out  his  ideal  long  before  he  puts  it  on  canvas ;  so 
of  the  sculptor,  the  architect  in  his  building, 
the  composer  in  the  song,  and  the  orator  in  his 
speech.  By  patient  work,  now  here,  now  there, 
the  great  artists  have  produced  their  master- 
pieces. The  idea  realized  in  expression  is  the 
highest  stroke  of  genius. 

Hamilton  says, — "all  thought  is  comparison — 
a  recognition  of  similarity  or  difference;  a  con- 
injunction,  or  disjunction;  in  other  words  a 
synthesis  or  an  analysis — of  its  objects." 

To  think,  then,  is  to  bring  together  two  ideas 
and  compare  them;  note  their  agreements  and 
differences.  A  thing  is  known  only  by  compar- 
ing it  with  the  idea  already  in  mind.  Compar- 
ison is  the  standard  by  which  the  pupil  discerns 
likenesses  and  differences.  The  standard  of 
comparison  Is  kept  in  the  mind  as  a  measuring 
rule.  By  it,  Jacotot  was  enabled  to  enounce 
his  dictum:  "Learn  one  thing  thoroughly,  and 
compare  everything  else  with  it." 

25 


SUCCESSFUL   TEACHING 

Expression  depends  upon  the  arresting  of 
thought.  It  is  the  power  to  hold  a  thought  in 
the  mind  and  dwell  upon  it  to  the  exclusion  of 
other  thoughts,  and  to  describe  it  with  clearness 
and  accuracy.  This  quality  is  clearly  in  oppo- 
sition to  vanishing  thought.  Opposition  is  a 
development,  and  is  an  element  often  overlooked 
in  mental  culture.  Life,  culture,  custom,  civil- 
ization, yea,  revolutions,  are  so  many  struggles 
and  triumphs  against  oppositions. 

As  the  teacher's  ideals  are,  so  will  the  school 
be.  Low  ideals  produce  poor  schools,  and  just 
in  proportion  as  the  teacher's  notion  of  what 
good  teaching  is,  will  the  school  improve  or  de- 
generate in  quality.  If  the  teaching  has  the 
three  qualities — of  vitality,  richness,  and  sta- 
bility— there  is  a  great  teacher  and  it  will  be 
a  great  school. 

Kansas  City,  Missouri, 

February  10,  1906. 


26 


Personality  as  a  Factor  in 
Teaching 

BY    H.    MONTAGUE    DONNER 


PERSONALITY  AS  A  FACTOR  IN  TEACHING 

No  OTHER  calling  or  trade,  I  venture  to  assert, 
shows  us  its  devotees  so  little  amenable  to  the 
exigencies  of  hard  and  fast  rules,  as  the  profes- 
sion of  teaching:  in  no  walk  of  life  are  the  re- 
quirements of  success  so  difficult  of  adjustment 
to  the  strict  limits  of  axiom  and  dogmas. 

That  this  is  of  necessity  so  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  successful  educator,  more  than  other 
men,  attains  his  ends  as  much  through  uncon- 
scious influence  as  by  conscious  effort;  in  fact, 
this  unconscious  influence  is  wider  in  its  scope 
and  more  far-reaching  in  its  effects,  if  not  more 
immediate  in  its  working,  upon  the  pupils  com- 
ing under  its  subtle  sway,  than  all  the  accom- 
panying visible  and  systematic  labor  on  the  part 
of  the  teacher. 

Of  late  years  it  has  in  many  quarters  come 
to  be  more  or  less  of  an  accepted  doctrine  that 
in  order  to  secure  good  and  durable  results  from 
the  pupil,  his  work  must  primarily  be  made  in- 
teresting to  him:  a  theory  the  exact  applicaton 
of  which  has  formed  a  bone  of  contention  for 
many  years  past  between  the  disciples  of  rival 
schools  of  educational  thought.     But  amid  all 

29 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

the  conflicting  views  as  to  the  proper  propor- 
tion of  interest  to  be  fostered  as  a  rival  incen- 
tive to  the  sense  of  duty  or  of  necessity  in  the 
pursuit  of  knowledge,  it  has  gradually  come  to 
be  recognized  that,  after  all,  the  most  effective 
means  of  creating  or  of  maintaining  such  inter- 
est abides  in  the  personality  of  the  instructor. 

And  when  we  try  to  gain  a  clear  conception 
of  this  insidious  and  subtle  influence,  this  mys- 
terious something,  this  elusive  quality,  that  we 
call  personality,  whose  potency  is  more  readily 
felt  than  easily  expressed  in  set  terms  of  speech, 
we  are  conscious  of  no  little  difficulty  in  seizing 
upon  its  constituent  element":. 

Yet,  elusive  tho  it  be,  define  it  we  must  in  more 
or  less  conclusive  terms,  if  we  are  to  come  to  an 
even  partially  adequate  understanding  of  the 
real,  the  vital  importance  of  this  prime  factor 
in  educational  dynamics. 

To  begin  with,  we  can,  of  course,  define  per- 
sonality as  the  sum  of  the  attributes  of  mind 
and  character  that  go  to  distinguish  one  indi- 
vidual from  others  of  his  class  or  station.  That, 
however,  is  merely  to  take  a  dictionary  defini- 
tion, which  will  not  help  us  in  our  consideration 
of  the  educational  problem  with  which  we  are 
concerned.  It  is  not  definition  we  are  in  search 
of  so  much  as  it  is  comprehension:  we  must 

30 


PERSONALITY   AS   A   FACTOR 

take  up  our  psychic  scalpel,  so  to  speak,  and 
dissect  and  analyze  carefully  the  various  quali- 
ties or  attributes  that  go  to  compose  the  indi- 
viduality of  him  who  deserves  to  be  called  a 
successful  educator.  Then,  and  then  only,  will 
it  become  manifest  how  paramount  a  factor  in- 
dividuality is  in  its  influence  over  the  immature 
minds  with  which  it  comes  into  daily  intimate 
contact. 

Our  analysis  will  serve  to  show  in  the  first 
place  two  great  component  qualities  in  such  a 
personality:  character  and  culture,  in  one  or 
other  of  which  all  attributes  will  be  found  to 
inhere.  First,  as  to  character.  This,  the  com- 
bined impress  of  nature  and  of  habit  through 
the  continuous  exercise  of  moral  qualities,  the 
sign  manual  of  habitual  uprightness  of  thought 
and  action,  manifests  itself  more  particularly 
in  the  teacher  in  a  stern  sense  of  duty  and  of 
justice,  in  impartiality,  in  a  mingling  of  firm- 
ness and  gentleness,  in  an  unwavering  rebuke 
of  all  deceitful  or  slothful  tendencies,  in  com- 
bination with  a  ready  sympathy  for  the  trials 
and  difficulties  of  his  young  charges — in  sum, 
in  a  high,  abiding  sense  of  responsibility. 

Secondly,  as  to  culture.  Character  of  the 
highest  stamp  is  lamentably  rare,  and  so,  it 
would  seem,  is  true  culture  in  this  center  of 

31 


SUCCESSFUL   TEACHING 

rabid  materialism  in  which  we  live  and  move — > 
far  too  rare,  even,  in  that  profession  where, 
next  to  that  of  the  minister  of  religion,  it  ought 
to  be  most  widely  disseminated.  For  into  cul- 
ture there  enters  much  more  than  mere  mas- 
tery of  intellectual  accomplishments;  more 
than  painstaking  perfection  in  one  or  two 
branches  of  scholastic  study;  something  beyond 
the  ability  to  impart  information  or  knowledge, 
however  skilfully  and  thoroughly ;  viz. :  wide 
reading  on  a  variety  of  topics  in  the  worlds  of 
art  and  letters;  a  consequent  command  of  one's 
native  tongue  not  only  beyond  the  circumscribed 
uses  of  the  school-room,  but  superior  to  the  lim- 
its of  slang  and  the  shop-worn  language  of  mart 
and  ledger;  an  active  interest  in  the  doings  of 
the  world  at  large,  entailing  some  acquaintance 
with  men  and  women  of  note  in  other  spheres 
of  life;  and  with  all  these  things  an  enthusiasm 
in  one's  profession  that  would  seek  the  applica- 
tion, in  some  form  or  other,  of  these  varied  in- 
terests to  the  work  of  the  school,  so  as  to  keep 
the  latter  vital  and  productive  of  results.  The 
sum  of  all  which  is  the  cultivation,  not  solely 
of  the  intellect,  but  of  the  imagination  and  of 
the  taste  in  the  direction  both  of  refinement  and 
catholicity — the  development  and  enlightenment 
of  the  mind  and  the  training  of  manners. 

32 


PERSONALITY   AS   A   FACTOR 

How  few  teachers,  alas!  measure  up  to  the 
full  requirements  of  this  high  standard,  in  which 
the  gentleman  (or  gentlewoman)  and  the  pub- 
lic-spirited citizen  are  as  much  in  evidence  as 
the  pedagog,  any  one  of  whom  has  made  a  study 
of  our  vaunted  school  system  must  be  fully 
aware.  Where  such  a  condition  of  affairs  pre- 
vails it  is  surely  just  to  hold  responsible  for  it 
less  the  teachers  themselves  than  the  system  that 
evolves  them — a  system  wherein  all  the  stress 
is  laid  upon  mere  scholarship,  as  gaged  by  the 
ability  to  pass  written  examinations,  so  that 
the  column  of  percentages  becomes  the  sole 
measure  of  a  candidate 's  worth ;  a  system  where 
a  college  degree  tends  more  and  more  to  become 
the  shibboleth  of  initiation  into  the  ranks  of  the 
elect;  a  system  that,  when  the  successful  candi- 
date has  become  the  full-fledged  teacher,  persists 
in  regarding  him  in  the  light,  not  so  much  of 
an  adult  man  of  brains  and  self-reliance,  as  of 
a  grown-up  school-boy,  who  must  continue  to 
be  marked  under  a  score  of  different  heads  by 
the  arch-pedagog  and  his  aides  in  the  seats 
of  power. 

Who  among  us  has  not  been  made  familiar 
with  such  a  system,  by  means  of  which  individ- 
ual initiative  is  discouraged  and  enthusiasm 
crushed?    Is  it  not  true  that  in  such  a  system 

33 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

the  test  of  the  teacher's  fitness  is  held  to  be  the 
ability  to  force  the  largest  possible  percentage 
of  pupils  through  the  yearly  and  half-yearly 
examinations,  and  this  despite  the  fact  that  he 
is  called  upon  to  heed  a  multitude  of  petty  reg- 
ulations in  and  out  of  the  class-room,  and  to  at- 
tend to  a  host  of  clercial  duties?  The  essential, 
the  vital,  in  the  educative  process  is  then  in- 
evitably subordinated  to  the  mechanical ;  instruc- 
tion is  degraded  into  mere  cramming,  the  Ultima- 
Thule  of  which  is  the  desert  isle  of  final  exam- 
ination, whereon  the  fatal  percentage  tree,  the 
cynosure  of  teachers'  and  pupils'  straining  eyes 
alike,  exhales  noxious  vapors  like  those  of  the 
fabled  upas,  deadening  the  faculties  of  the  un- 
fortunates that  come  within  its  baleful  shade. 

Surely,  of  all  factors  capable  of  effectively 
combating  the  deadly  workings  of  this  mechan- 
ical process  of  drill  and  cram  so  mistakenly  dig- 
nified by  the  name  of  education,  the  most  potent 
is  to  be  looked  for  in  the  personality  of  the 
teacher.  Consequently,  I  take  it,  it  can  scarcely 
be  denied  that  any  system  which  fails,  in  its 
scheme  for  the  training  of  teachers,  to  lay  due 
emphasis  on  the  cultivation  of  those  qualities  of 
mind  and  spirit  that  distinguish  the  thinker  and 
the  planner  from  the  mere  animated  machine, 
and  so  assure  the  evolution  of  the  type  of  per- 

34 


PERSONALITY   AS    A   FACTOR 

sonality  that  I  have  sought  to  describe — which, 
in  other  words,  fails  to  elevate  teaching  into 
the  rank  of  a  profession  instead  of  the  "sorriest 
of  trades, ' '  is  hopelessly,  fundamentally,  at  fault, 
and  needs  to  be  born  again. 

For,  while  method  in  teaching,  which  every 
normal  school  or  teachers'  training  college  bends 
its  energies  to  perfecting,  is,  of  course,  essential, 
it  is  only  a  step  in  advance  of  the  aimless,  des- 
ultory fashion  of  instruction  which  it  is  de- 
signed to  supplant,  and  will  not  in  itself  alone 
be  productive  of  the  highest  results,  in  the 
achievement  of  which  the  human,  the  personal 
element  must  enter.  The  minister,  the  actor, 
and  the  public  orator  sway  their  audiences  by 
the  unconscious  magnetism  of  their  personal 
power,  and  in  the  domain  of  statecraft  it  is  be- 
coming more  and  more  an  accepted  truth  that 
righteous  government  is  less  a  matter  of  meas- 
ures than  of  men. 

In  this  connection,  therefore,  it  may  be  well 
to  call  in  mind  an  estimate,  made  by  a  contem- 
porary, of  one  of  the  greatest  educators  of  mod- 
ern times,  one  who  was  essentially  a  man  of 
practise,  of  action,  rather  than  of  theories.  Says 
Dean  Stanley,  in  his  "Life  of  Thomas  Arnold," 
the  famous  head-master  of  Rugby :  ' '  He  was  dis- 
tinctively a  practical  man,  an  empiric  of  the 

35 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

best  kind.  He  was  governed  by  two  main  prin- 
ciples. As  a  trainer  of  character,  he  aimed  to 
make  his  pupils  Christian  gentlemen ;  as  a 
trainer  of  mind,  to  make  them  think."  And  in 
another  place :  ' '  But  whatever  interest  attaches 
to  the  more  external  circumstances  of  his  ad- 
ministration, and  to  his  relations  with  others 
who  were  concerned  in  it,  is,  of  course,  centered 
in  his  own  personal  government  of  the  boys. 
.  It  was  not  the  master  who  was  beloved 
or  disliked  for  the  sake  of  the  school,  but  the 
school  which  was  beloved  or  disliked  for  the 
sake  of  the  master.  Whatever  peculiarity  of 
character  was  impressed  on  the  scholars  whom 
it  sent  forth,  was  derived,  not  from  the  genius 
of  the  place,  but  from  the  genius  of  the  man. 
Throughout,  whether  in  the  school  itself  or  in 
its  after  effects,  the  one  image  that  we  have  be- 
fore us  is  not  Rugby,  but  Arnold." 

There,  indeed,  are  we  confronted  with  a  bril- 
liant example  of  the  triumph  of  personality. 
We  are  thus  led  back  to  my  starting  point :  that 
the  true  object  of  all  education  is  to  produce, 
not  so  much  scJiolars  as  men — or  mothers  of  men, 
as  the  case  may  be — and  in  the  recognition  of 
this  fact  depends  the  future  welfare  of  our  state. 
Now,  in  none  of  the  provinces  of  man's  activity 
that  I  have  hereinbefore  mentioned,  save  in  the 

36 


PERSONALITY   AS   A   FACTOR 

case  of  the  physician,  is  the  personal  relation  so 
close  as  between  teacher  and  pupil,  and  for  every 
one  person  with  whom  the  medical  adviser  comes 
into  occasional  intimate  touch  there  are  a  dozen 
or  a  score  of  youthful  minds  in  daily  familiar 
contact  with  their  instructor.  A  wealth  of  per- 
sonal association  is  inwoven  in  the  very  web  and 
woof  of  every  subject  the  pupils  study  with  him, 
and  is  ever  thereafter  inseparably  active  in  what- 
ever bearing  such  study  has  upon  the  problems 
of  those  students'  lives.  Thus,  it  is  not  too  much 
to  say  that  the  teacher  becomes  in  a  very  real 
sense  a  part  of  his  pupils '  life,  and  the  influence 
of  the  educator  who  has  a  full  realization  of  this 
momentous  fact  may  be  almost  immeasurable  in 
the  formation  of  the  character  of  his  youthful 
charges,  all  the  more  so  from  the  very  fact  of 
such  influence  being  so  unobtrusive,  almost  un- 
conscious, in  its  daily,  perhaps  hourly,  working. 
Scholarship,  however  thorough,  as  the  sole  equip- 
ment of  the  teacher,  will  not  bring  about  this 
result.  The  bearing,  the  manners,  the  personal 
appearance,  the  choice  of  language,  nay,  the 
very  inflection  of  the  voice,  become  so  many 
silent  but  deep  channels  of  the  spiritual  sea 
whose  waters  shall  gently  overflow  the  virgin 
soil  of  a  thousand  unsophistocated  natures,  and 
fructify  it  to  bear,  through  the  successive  sea- 

37 


a4.86'75 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

sons  of  an  honored  life,  a  rich  growth  of  the 
fruits,  not  only  of  the  intellect,  but  of  the  heart 
and  soul. 

And  the  teacher  who  lives  to  see  some  part  of 
such  fruition  of  his  sincere  efforts  and  ideals, 
may  indeed  feel  that  he  has  won  the  dearest 
reward  in  life,  conscious,  with  an  ineffable  in- 
ward glow,  that  generations  to  come  will  arise 
and  call  him  blessed. 


38 


The  Value  of  Psychology  in 
Teaching 


BY    J.    J.    SHARP 


THE  VALUE  OF  PSYCHOLOGY  IN  TEACHING 

The  success  of  any  man  in  dealing  with  his 
fellows  depends  largely  upon  his  knowledge  of 
human  nature.  Experience  and  observation 
show  that  seven-eighths  of  one's  knowledge  of 
human  nature  consists  of  a  knowledge  of  the 
capabilities  and  modes  of  activity  of  the  human 
mind.  The  lawyer,  physician,  and  clergyman 
alike,  prove  by  their  life-work  the  truth  of  these 
propositions.  For,  he  who  unravels  successfully 
legal  cases  and  wins  verdicts,  needs  to  know  the 
facts  of  the  mind  and  the  laws  according  to 
which  it  acts  and  grows;  he  who  deals  success- 
fully with  bodily  disease  and  weakness,  must 
consider  the  preponderating  influence  which  the 
mind  wields  over  the  body;  and  he  who  makes 
men  holy  and  ministers  to  their  spiritual  wants, 
needs  to  know  the  laws  of  human  thought  and 
the  use  of  arguments  and  motives. 

But  more  than  all  others  who  deal  with  hu- 
man nature,  the  teacher  must  know  the  laws  of 
the  mind's  activity  and  the  resulting  processes 
for  its  guidance  and  growth.  For  it  is  the  special 
work  of  the  teacher  to  lead  his  pupils  to  know 
and  to  train  them  into  right  habits  of  thought 

41 


SUCCESSFUL   TEACHING 

and  action.  How  can  he  do  this  unless  he  un- 
derstands the  process  by  which  the  mind  comes 
to  know,  and  the  process  by  which  growth  in 
right  habits  is  secured?  It  is  not  enough  for 
the  teacher  to  know  well  the  subjects  to  be 
taught,  but,  in  addition  to  this,  he  must  be  able 
so  to  impart  his  knowledge  as  to  arouse  self-ac- 
tivity on  the  part  of  his  pupils  and  induce 
growth.  Very  much  of  the  poor  work  charge- 
able to  the  teaching  profession  is  done  by  teach- 
ers who  study  the  book  and  not  the  boy.  As 
well  expect  good  teaching  under  such  circum- 
stances as  good  music  from  a  player  who  knows 
only  the  tunes  to  be  played  and  not  the  instru- 
ment itself.  But,  to  pursue  the  figure  still  far- 
ther, the  school-room  may  be  said  to  contain, 
ordinarily,  a  large  number  of  musical  instru- 
ments, each  of  which  differs  greatly  from  the 
others,  on  the  first  day  of  school,  and  grows 
daily  into  an  instrument  quite  different  from 
what  it  was  the  day  before.  To  play  on  all  these 
instruments  and  produce  sweet,  melodious  music, 
without  discord,  is  an  Herculean  task,  and  cer- 
tainly calls  for  a  knowledge  both  of  the  instru- 
ments and  the  tones  to  be  produced.  One  might 
as  well  claim  that  a  knowledge  of  the  functions 
of  the  tooth  is  of  no  value  to  the  dentist,  or  that 
a  knowledge  of  the  qualities  of  lumber  is  of  no 

42 


VALUE    OF   PSYCHOLOGY 

value  to  the  carpenter,  as  that  a  knowledge  of 
the  laws  of  the  mind's  activity  is  of  no  value  to 
the  teacher. 

From  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  life  is  a  succes- 
sion of  distinct  stages.  A  study  of  these  stages 
throws  light  on  human  nature,  and  gives  a  mean- 
ing to  every  look  and  action  of  the  individual. 
It  is  useless  to  expect  a  person  at  one  period  to 
perform  the  functions  of  another  period.  For 
instance,  at  one  stage  the  child's  memory  pow- 
ers are  on  top;  there  is  little  or  no  reasoning  at 
seven,  eight  or  nine ;  abstract  mathematics  is  out 
of  the  question  then,  but  give  the  child  history. 
It  is  economical  to  let  education  follow  these 
periods. 

The  stages  of  most  interest  to  the  teacher  evi- 
dently are  childhood  and  adolescence.  The  for- 
mer is  distinguished  by  imagination  and  mem- 
ory; the  latter,  by  thinking  and  reason. 

During  the  period  of  childhood  the  boy  or 
girl  enters  school  for  the  first  time  as  a  begin- 
ner, and  receives  impressions  which  are  apt  to 
be  lasting.  His  or  her  whole  future  may  hinge 
on  those  impressions.  With  greatest  care  and 
tact  should  teacher  and  parent  proceed  in  lay- 
ing the  foundation  stones,  if  the  superstructure 
of  future  development  is  to  be  built  with  surety 
of  success. 

43 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

The  phenomenal  activity  of  childhood,  so 
noticeable  in  the  average  boy  and  girl,  is  a  di- 
rect result  of  the  rapid  growth  of  the  body  and 
brain.  Every  primary  teacher  is  familiar  with 
the  exceeding  restlessness  of  the  first  grade  pu- 
pils. Indeed,  there  seems  to  be  no  such  thing 
for  them  as  standing  or  sitting  still.  They  are 
irritable  if  confined,  joyous  if  active.  Wisely 
Nature  ordained  activity  as  an  outlet  for  the 
child's  superabundant  energy,  and  the  teacher 
who  tries  to  suppress  or  restrain  the  child  when 
Nature  insists  that  it  shall  be  free,  not  only  in- 
jures the  child  but  commits  a  crime  against  rea- 
son and  sense.  The  child  has  a  right  to  play 
by  inheritance,  and  it  is  both  wrong  and  cruel 
to  deprive  him  of  this  legacy  which  has  de- 
scended to  him  from  time  immemorable.  He  is 
a  child  that  he  might  play,  he  doesn't  play  be- 
cause he  is  a  child. 

One  very  noticeable  feature  about  the  activ- 
ity of  childhood  is  the  exercise  of  the  larger 
muscles  which  it  invariably  involves.  The  move- 
ments are  of  the  whole  body,  and  not  of  mere 
portions  of  it.  The  fundamental  muscles,  and 
not  the  delicate  and  finely  co-ordinated  muscles, 
are  employed  in  all  the  movements.  Such  mus- 
cles as  are  engaged  in  fine  writing,  drawing  and 
sewing,  are  developed  later.     Especially  is  this 

44 


VALUE    OF    PSYCHOLOGY 

true  of  the  muscles  of  the  eye.  Ignorance  of 
these  facts  has  led  to  mistakes  in  training,  chorea 
and  other  nervous  disorders  have  been  traced 
frequently  to  fine  sewing  and  stick-laying  in 
kindergarten  work.  The  wise  teacher  will  not 
compel  or  permit  his  young  pupils  to  follow  a 
fine  copy  in  writing,  but  will  encourage  them 
to  use  the  blackboard,  where  abundant  oppor- 
tunity will  be  given  for  exercising  the  larger 
muscles.  For  years,  near-sightedness  has  been 
held  to  be  inherited,  but  a  close  observation  of 
myopia  in  children  reveals  the  fact  that  this 
defect  increases  after  the  age  of  five,  thus  dis- 
proving the  theory  of  heredity,  and  suggesting 
a  plausible  cause  in  the  too  close  reading  and 
visualization  of  early  childhood.  The  visual 
interests  of  this  period  are  for  concrete  things. 
The  eye  demands  pictures, — pictures  of  real  life 
and  objects.  This  is  exercise  to  the  eye,  and  a 
proper  form  of  activity. 

Childhood  has  been  called  the  language  peri- 
od par  excellence,  but  this  statement  has  ref- 
erence to  oral,  and  not  written,  forms  of  speech. 
Every  teacher  knows  how  easily  and  rapidly  the 
child  acquires  a  vocabulary  at  this  stage.  He 
learns  language  by  imitation,  and  the  whole 
epoch  of  childhood  is,  as  psychology  teaches  and 
as  William  Wordsworth  expresses  it,  "One  end- 

45 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

less  imitation. ' '  It  therefore  behooves  the  teacher 
to  neglect,  if  anything,  reading  and  writing  dur- 
ing the  early  stage  of  childhood,  and  make  play- 
ing and  story-telling  the  emphatic  work  in  the 
years  preceding  eight.  Why  not  let  the  child 
live  in  a  world  of  sonorous  speech,  and  hear  and 
talk  for  himself  each  day  ?  A  proper  regard  for 
the  future  usefulness  of  the  eyes  of  the  child 
certainly  requires  that  a  departure  be  made  from 
the  method  now  prevalent  of  requiring  a  large 
number  of  essays  and  written  compositions 
which  appeal  only  to  new  and  undeveloped  pow- 
ers of  nerve  and  muscle.  A  realizing  sense  of 
the  true  nature  of  the  child,  as  revealed  by 
observation  and  experience,  suggests  a  postpone- 
ment of  written  language-work  and  fine  read- 
ing until  a  time  when  the  finer  eye  muscles  are 
properly  developed  and  able  to  bear  the  work. 
We  pass  now  to  consider  that  period  in  which 
there  exists  a  marked  difference  between  the  two 
sexes.  To  this  period  we  have  assigned  the  name 
of  adolescence.  Prior  to  this  time  there  was  no 
radical  difference  between  the  relative  abilities 
of  the  boy  and  girl.  Now,  however,  the  girl  de- 
velops faster  than  the  boy,  and  therefore  pos- 
sesses less  mental  acuity.  Later  on,  the  boy 
forges  ahead,  physically,  and  for  several  years 
his  intellectual  faculties  lag.     These  differences 

46 


VALUE    OF   PSYCHOLOGY 

make  it  difficult  properly  to  arrange  a  course  of 
study. 

The  physical  changes  of  this  period  are  famil- 
iar to  all.  The  heart  enlarges,  and  the  arteries 
increase  one-third.  This  large  increase  of  the 
circulation  seems  even  greater  than  is  necessary 
to  supply  the  extra  nutrition  for  the  rapidly 
growing  bodily  organs,  and,  as  a  result,  there  is 
a  superabundance  of  energy  which  must  have 
an  outlet.  The  finding  out  of  this  outlet  should 
be  the  particular  care  of  the  teacher,  because,  if 
left  undirected,  the  outlet  chosen  is  wholly  the 
result  of  chance. 

That  this  is  an  awkward  age  is  well  known. 
An  adolescent  will  fall  over  a  chair  rather  than 
walk  around  it.  The  growth  of  the  muscles  and 
nerves  is  faster  than  their  organization,  and 
this,  coupled  with  the  unsettled  condition  of  the 
brain  and  muscles,  produces  a  lack  of  coordina- 
tion and  thereby  a  want  of  self-control.  Self- 
consciousness,  blushing,  and  a  desire  to  show 
off,  are  present  as  distinct  adolescent  phenom- 
ena. Laboring  under  the  spell  of  mental  storm 
and  stress,  the  youth  possesses  an  intense  long- 
ing to  do  battle  for  himself,  and  craves  to  reap 
a  harvest  without  having  sown.  Old  interests 
die  and  new  ones  are  born.  He  runs  away  from 
home,  so  great  is  his  desire  to  see  the  world  for 

47 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

himself.     Crime   increases   during  this   period, 
and  most  religious  conversions  occur. 

"The  hope  of  truth  grows  stronger  day  by  day; 
I  hear  the  soul  of  Man  around  me  waking. 
Like  a  great  sea,  its  frozen  fetters  breaking, 
And  flinging  up  to  Heaven  its  sunlit  spray. 

And  every  hour  new  signs  of  promise  tell 
That  the  great  soul  shall  once  again  be  free. 
For  high,  and  yet  more  high,  the  murmurs  swell 
Of  inward  strife  for  strife  and  liberty." 

— ^Lowell,  Sub  Pondere  Crescit. 

The  grand  pedagogical  aim  should  be  to  util- 
ize the  tempestuous  emotions  of  adolescence.  The 
teacher  should  balance  undue  ambition  by  seri- 
ous study.  Adolescents  require  activity.  There 
must  be  an  outlet  somewhere.  The  aim  should 
always  be  to  drift  the  energy  off  into  healthful 
channels.  Otherwise  the  same  will  be  lost,  or 
worse  than  lost.  In  some  instances  activity  is 
the  surest  safeguard  against  suicide.  In  every 
case,  if  rightly  employed,  it  is  a  saving  of  en- 
ergy. It  is  a  mistake  to  demand  too  much  work 
now  while  the  physical  organs  are  developing. 
It  is  well  to  be  sympathetic  rather  than  swift 
in  punishment.  Every  high-school  teacher 
knows  that  any  course  which  is  not  based  on 
sympathy  usually  falls  short  of  the  mark. 

48 


VALUE    OF   PSYCHOLOGY 

Every  youth  passes  through  these  stages.  If 
they  are  normal  types,  the  period  of  adolescence 
will  come  from  14  to  25  in  the  case  of  boys,  and 
from  12  to  21  in  the  case  of  girls.  Should  the 
vitality  be  sapped  by  overwork  or  otherwise,  the 
stage  may  be  retarded  several  years,  but  come 
it  surely  will  if  the  individual  lives. 

A  study  of  the  psychology  of  childhood  is  an 
indispensable  part  of  the  preparation  of  every 
teacher  in  the  lower  grades,  and  a  study  of 
adolescence  should  form  a  part  of  the  education 
of  every  teacher  in  the  higher  institutions.  The 
subject  should  be  studied  scientifically  from  the 
standpoint  of  physiology  and  psychology.  From 
what  has  been  said  of  childhood  and  adolescence 
it  ought  to  be  obvious  that  before  we  can  train 
the  mind  we  must  understand  the  psychology 
of  the  age  which  we  are  dealing  with.  Epochs 
count  for  much  in  education. 

Psychology  teaches  us  to  ascertain  the  moods 
of  our  pupils  by  a  study  of  their  bodies.  The 
teacher  who  does  this  will  find  his  vocation  more 
congenial,  the  results  of  his  labors  brighter,  and 
his  pupils  happier.  A  well  developed  chest  in- 
dicates a  mind  unconscious  of  wrong  doing,  but 
once  a  sense  of  shame  is  felt,  the  chest  falls, 
and  a  victory  is  gained  for  easy  control. 
Fortunate,  in  truth  and  in  fact,  is  that  teacher 

49 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

who  understands  the  bodj'  as  the  book  of  the 
soul ! 

The  teacher  who  is  familiar  with  psychology- 
is  a  better  teacher,  other  things  being  equal,  than 
one  who  knows  nothing  about  it.  There  prob- 
ably never  was  a  successful  teacher  who  did  not 
have  a  knowledge  of  the  working  principles  of 
psychology  and  who  did  not  apply  those  princi- 
ples in  his  teaching,  no  matter  how  crude  that 
knowledge  was,  nor  how  crude  the  steps  by 
which  it  was  secured. 

Every  teacher  should  study  the  minds  of  the 
children  under  his  direction ;  should  understand 
the  close  relations  which  exist  between  mental 
and  physical  growth;  should  observe  the  mental 
and  physical  traits  as  manifested  in  the  stage 
with  which  he  deals.  The  teacher  who  does  this 
will  not  make  the  blunder  of  giving  mathematics 
in  abstract  form  to  a  mere  child;  will  not  ex- 
pect the  reasoning  powers  to  be  developed  at 
six,  seven,  eight,  or  nine ;  but  will  appeal  to  the 
powers  of  imagination  and  memory  which  are 
then  on  top,  by  giving  history,  mythology,  and 
stories  of  fable.  The  teacher  who  appreciates 
with  some  degree  of  intelligence  the  psychology 
of  children,  will  not  punish  a  child  for  being  a 
child;  he  will  not  look  with  dread  and  alarm 
upon  traits  which  are  purely  reversionary;  for 

50 


VALUE    OF    PSYCHOLOGY 

the  student  of  psychology  well  knows  that  these 
traits  will  be  outgrown  normally  and  naturally 
when  the  time  is  ripe ;  knows  that  the  child  will 
learn  to  walk  when  the  brain  centers  controlling 
the  apparatus  of  locomotion  are  ready,  and  not 
before;  knows  that  the  child  will  talk  when  the 
lingual  muscles  and  nerves  are  ready,  and  not 
before;  knows  that  the  boy  or  girl  will  begin  to 
reason  and  think  when  the  fibers  of  the  brain 
and  the  modulation  of  the  nerves  are  sufficiently 
established,  and  not  before.  When  these  vari- 
ous seasons  arrive,  and  not  before,  is  the  proper 
time  to  exercise  the  child  in  the  activities  which 
are  normal  to  those  times.  The  teacher  or  par- 
ent who  can  relegate  instruction  and  discipline  to 
their  proper  epochs  in  the  life  of  the  child  has 
the  power,  almost,  of  creation. 

Psychology  is,  then,  in  brief,  a  beacon-light 
illuminating  the  vast  sea  of  pedagogy,  disclos- 
ing the  rocks  and  shoals,  and  making  clear  the 
course  to  be  pursued.  It  is  within  the  bounds 
of  sense  to  say  that  it  is  the  greatest  study  ever 
instituted  and  destined  to  realize  the  grand- 
est possibilities.  It  is  to-day  almost  universally 
regarded  as  of  the  utmost  importance  in  the 
preparation  of  the  teacher,  in  arranging  courses 
of  study,  in  determining  methods  of  instruction, 
and  in  deciding  questions  of  discipline. 

51 


How  Best  to  Develop  Character 
in  Children 

BY    MRS.    EMILY     S.     LOUD 


HOW  BEST  TO  DEVELOP  CHARACTER   IN 
CHILDREN 

Character  is  that  quality  of  moral  force  in- 
herent in  an  individual,  which  leads  to  a  line  of 
conduct  conformable  to  that  quality.  Charac- 
ter is  a  positive,  not  a  negative,  virtue,  and  is 
developed  through  daily  habits  of  self-disci- 
pline and  high  thinking,  consciously  and  uncon- 
sciously practised  from  childhood.  The  man 
of  character  moves  among  his  fellow  men  sur- 
rounded by  an  atmosphere  of  moral  influence, 
of  decided,  but  unobtrusive  force,  unless  the 
occasion  demands  it,  which  makes  itself  felt 
wherever  his  duty  may  call  him.  It  is  to  such 
men  and  women  that  individuals  and  communi- 
ties instinctively  turn  in  times  of  stress,  and  it 
is  such  men  and  women  that  we  would  like  our 
children  to  become.  How  shall  we  set  about 
the  work  of  making  them  such? 

There  is  much  sentimental  talk  about  the 
teacher  having  the  child  while  its  mind  is  as 
yet  plastic,  and  that  she  can  therefore  mold 
her  pupils  as  she  pleases.  It  is  on  account  of 
this  often  expressed  sentiment,  and  a  general 
expectation  that  schools  should  do  even  more 

55 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

than  churches  to  better  the  morals  of  the  peo- 
ple, that  so  much  dissatisfaction  is  now  being 
manifested,  even  by  noted  university  profes- 
sors, at  the  seeming  failure  of  the  public  schools 
as  a  moralizing  force  in  the  education  of  many 
of  our  prominent  men. 

But  the  causes  of  the  lack  of  public  morality 
lie  deeper  than  in  our  system  of  public-school 
teaching.  I  venture  the  assertion  that  there  is 
no  public  school  in  our  land  where  the  teachers 
have  not  time  and  again,  as  opportunity  pre- 
sented itself,  urged  the  claims  of  moral  obliga- 
tions upon  the  pupils  under  their  charge.  That 
there  has  not  been  more  time  spent  in  the 
schools  in  this  work  is  owing  to  the  constant 
pressure  upon  both  teachers  and  pupils  to  "get 
on"  in  the  purely  intellectual  and  commercial 
branches  that  crowd  our  courses  of  study,  and 
which  mark  the  educational  standing  of  the 
teacher  and  her  class. 

It  is  expecting  superhuman  wisdom  of  chil- 
dren to  surround  them  outside  of  their  schools 
with  an  atmosphere  of  frenzied  greed  for  com- 
mercial gain,  no  matter  how  obtained,  graft, 
public  and  private  breaches  of  trust,  and  im- 
morality, and  then  expect  to  make  of  them  the 
men  and  women  you  wish  by  saying  to  them, 
"Do  none  of  these  things  that  our  men  promi- 

56 


TO   DEVELOP    CHARACTER 

nent  in  political  and  commercial  life  are  doing, 
but  be  honest,  trustworthy,  clean,  and  moral." 

The  teacher's  opportunity  lies  in  the  fact 
that  during  the  formative  period  of  a  child's 
character  she  is  brought  into  closer  relations 
with  the  child  than  are  these  outside  influences. 
She  must  lay  her  foundations  before  he  fully 
understands  and  takes  to  himself  the  evils  that 
surround  him. 

To  do  this,  the  teacher  must  herself  contin- 
ually seek  moral  growth,  and  walk  strictly  and 
honestly  in  the  path  she  wishes  her  pupils  to 
walk.  The  children  must  see  "how  righteous- 
ness looks  when  it  is  lived. ' '  No  teacher  unwil- 
ling to  do  this  should  take  upon  herself  the 
sacred  task  of  guiding  the  young.  Then  she 
should  so  train  her  pupils  that  they  may  know 
right  from  wrong,  and  thus  know  how  to  choose 
the  right. 

Every  teacher  is  presumably  able  to  impart 
the  technical  knowledge  of  her  profession.  Her 
chief  obligation  then  is  to  see  that  while  doing 
this,  under  all  and  above  all,  she  is  inculcating 
those  basic  principles  of  right  action  that  we 
call  character.  If  from  the  outset  she  purposes 
this,  each  lesson,  in  whatever  branch,  will  be 
one  of  a  chain  of  links  teaching  obedience,  self- 
control,  thoroughness,  and  truthfulness.     Many 

57 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

times  daily  the  child  performs  these  moral  acts 
of  obedience  and  self-control,  and  strict  atten- 
tion should  be  paid  as  to  how  they  are  per- 
formed. It  is  not  so  much  what  a  child  learns, 
as  what  he  actually  does,  that  forms  character. 

Every  child  should  be  taught  accuracy  even 
in  his  first  lessons  in  number-making,  spelling, 
and  writing.  It  may  seem  an  unnecessary 
strictness  to  oblige  a  child  to  be  accurate  in  the 
small  details  of  arranging  his  work  orderly  on 
paper  or  slate.  But  the  teacher  who  allows 
slip-shod  methods  of  work  to  pass  through  her 
hands,  is  aiding  that  child  along-  a  slip-shod 
path  of  morality.  Accept  nothing  but  the 
best  work  of  a  pupil,  and  you  are  establishing 
a  stable  character,  which  will  not  only  give  the 
child  a  grip  on  material  things,  but  will  give 
the  child  a  strength  of  character  in  ethical  mat- 
ters as  well.  Teach  the  child  that  nothing  is 
right  that  is  not  exactly  right,  and  you  are 
training  him  in  a  respectful  observance  of  moral 
duties  that  will  keep  him  from  imbibing  the 
atmosphere  of  careless  indifference  to  moral 
obligations  that  has  made  these  duties  seem  of 
so  much  less  moment  now,  than  they  were  be- 
lieved formerly  to  be. 

Deal  strictly  also  with  any  disposition  to 
cheat.    When  you  know  that  this  has  been  done, 

58 


TO   DEVELOP    CHARACTER 

quietly  reject  the  work,  take  the  child  to  one 
side,  and  tell  him  why  his  work  was  thrown  out. 
Take  no  excuse  for  it,  and  train  him  to  see  that 
while  failure  is  a  mortification,  cheating  is  to 
act  a  falsehood,  and  is  also  a  theft.  Never 
blame  a  child  for  failure  in  lessons  when  you 
know  that  he  has  done  his  best,  but  give  him 
similar  work  to  do  by  himself  and  then  see 
where  and  why  he  failed.  Children  will  soon 
learn  that  you  will  accept  no  dishonest  or  slip- 
shod work,  and  they  will  gradually  become  so 
established  in  accuracy,  honesty,  and  thorough- 
ness in  their  work,  that  they  will  scorn  Tying, 
cheating,  and  carelessness  wherever  they  see 
them.  Constant  daily  drill  is  necessary  to  ac- 
complish all  this,  and  it  means,  on  the  teacher's 
part,  a  daily  renewal  of  self-discipline.  But  it 
is  our  necessity  as  teachers. 

As  nearly  as  possible,  train  the  children  in 
individual  responsibility.  Do  not  allow  them 
to  lay  the  blame  of  their  own  misconduct  on 
some  other  child.  Kindly,  but  firmly,  show 
them  that  the  choice  always  remains  with  them 
to  choose  their  own  line  of  conduct,  and  that 
it  leads  to  its  own  legitimate  result.  It  is  well 
to  let  them  see  this  in  its  practical  workings.  In 
every  class  there  will  always  be  a  few,  who,  al- 
tho   hearing  instructions   as   to   the  lessons   to 

59 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

be  learned,  waste  time  in  idleness,  waiting  for  the 
prodding  that  so  often  comes  from  the  patient 
or  impatient  teacher.  If  they  are  spoken  to 
often  enough,  the  lesson  is  done;  but  the  learn- 
ing of  it  has  not  helped  the  child  along  the  path 
of  character-making,  since  it  has  been  done  un- 
der the  stress  of  the  teacher's  eyes  and  words. 
It  is  sometimes  a  good  plan  to  let  the  child  take 
its  own  way  for  once,  and  then  visit  him  with 
some  penalty,  that  will  teach  him  that  what 
seems  the  path  of  least  resistance,  may  end  in 
a  quagmire  of  discomfort  and  regret,  with  the 
added  consciousness  that  it  was  his  own  choice. 
Past  history  and  the  events  of  the  day  are 
full  of  proofs  that  our  moral,  mental,  physical, 
and  material  belongings  are  largely  the  accu- 
mulation of  our  own  acts,  and  we  should  try 
to  impress  upon  children,  early  and  late,  that 
the  way  to  avoid  the  mistakes  of  others  is  to 
lay  in  youth  the  sure  and  safe  foundation  of 
good  habits.  Read  and  tell  children  stories  that 
will  give  an  opportunity  to  get  at  their  ideas 
by  asking,  "What  would  you  do  in  such  a 
case?"  and  thus  train  them  in  thoughtfulness 
and  discrimination.  Children  need  this  train- 
ing in  thinking  and  deciding  for  themselves, 
that  they  may  not  be  kept  too  long  in  moral 
leading-strings,   but   learn    that   as   individuals 

60 


TO   DEVELOP   CHARACTER 

they  are  accountable  and  responsible  for  their 
own  acts. 

Physical  culture  or  military  drill  in  school, 
from  the  prompt  obedience  it  exacts,  is  also  an 
aid  to  development  of  character.  Memorizing 
poems  and  speeches  that  contain  lofty  senti- 
ments, also  have  their  influence  for  good.  To 
have  a  child  concentrate  most  attention  on  the 
study  he  likes  least,  until  he  has  conquered 
its  difficulties,  is  another  aid  to  character-build- 
ing, for  the  strongest  characters  are  born  of  a 
conflict  and  victory. 

Finally,  let  us  not  forget  that  while  Paul  may 
plant  and  Apollos  may  water,  God  must  give 
the  increase.  The  spring  from  which  we  draw 
our  drinking  water  may  not  always  be  in  sight, 
yet  if  its  source  is  pure,  its  health-giving  waters 
will  permeate  our  bodies,  washing  away  all 
waste  matter,  and  fill  our  systems  with  daily 
renewed  life  and  strength.  So,  while  we  may 
not  have  the  Bible  in  our  schools,  if  we,  as  teach- 
ers, draw  our  daily  inspiration  from  its  pre- 
cepts, the  children  of  our  land  are  safe  in  our 
hands.  As  they  leave  us  to  take  their  places  in 
the  government  and  business  positions  to  which 
they  may  be  called,  we  may  rest  assured  that 
our  loved  country  shall  not  become  a  prey  to 
those  evils  that  fall  upon  the  nations  that  for- 
get God. 

61 


How  Best  to  Gain     and  Keep 
Control  of  Pupils 


BY    A.    J.    GROUT 


HOW  BEST   TO  GAIN  AND    KEEP  CONTROL 
OF   PUPILS 

In  order  to  gain  and  keep  control  in  the 
school-room,  the  teacher  must  have  certain  char- 
acteristics, natural  or  acquired.  One  must  have 
self-confidence  without  conceit,  self-control  with- 
out coldness  or  stiffness  of  manner,  a  sound  and 
active  intellect,  with  good  judgment  and  a  keen 
sense  of  justice,  and  an  unselfish  interest  in  the 
welfare  of  others. 

These  are  greatly  to  be  desired:  A  pleasing 
person  and  voice,  good  nature  of  a  sort  that  is 
not  easily  imposed  upon,  a  quick  insight  into 
character,  and  an  affectionate  and  confidence- 
winning  disposition. 

No  one,  of  course,  completely  fills  the  bill, 
but  the  above  is  a  good  ideal  to  keep  in  mind. 

Women  are  more  often  deficient  in  confidence 
and  self-control,  and  men  are  more  likely  to 
lack  in  unselfishness,  and  to  have  an  unneces- 
sary amount  of  conceit. 

Methods  must  vary  somewhat  with  the  age 
of  the  pupils,  as  the  author  has  learned  in  an 
experience  of  twenty  years,  covering  all  grades 
below  the  college. 

Children  in  the  kindergarten  and  in  the  early 
65 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

primary  grades  are  more  often  troublesome  from 
spontaneous  activity  than  from  any  conscious 
motive,  and  must  be  treated  very  differently 
from  older  and  more  self-conscious  pupils. 

With  the  smaller  folk  plenty  of  physical  ac- 
tivity and  short  periods  for  other  exercises  are 
necessary.  Then,  if  the  teacher  can  present  her 
work  in  a  way  to  hold  attention  and  interest, 
and  is  firm  but  kind  in  insisting  on  obedience, 
little  difficulty  will  be  experienced. 

With  the  older  pupils  the  opening  day  is  most 
important.  Begin  with  the  assurance  of  suc- 
cess firmly  fixed  in  your  own  mind,  or  in  as 
near  that  state  of  mind  as  possible.  One  who 
enters  the  room  timidly  and  deprecatingly  is 
bound  to  have  trouble,  and  that  soon.  Even  if 
you  can  not  help  ''shaking  in  your  shoes,"  use 
all  your  powers  of  self-control  to  appear  uncon- 
cerned and  as  familiar  with  first  days  as  with 
your  breakfast.  Every  eye  is  on  you  for  the 
first  few  hours  and  days,  to  see  of  what  stuff  you 
are  made,  and  just  as  soon  as  the  shyness  of 
novelty  has  worn  off,  if  not  sooner,  some  irre- 
sponsible person  will  "Do  it  just  to  see  what 
teacher  will  do."  If  you  hesitate  then  you  are 
lost, — for  the  time  at  least.  Do  something  your- 
self and  do  it  quickly,  so  quickly  as  to  take 
away  the  breath  of  the  insurgent. 

66 


CONTROL    OF    PUPILS 

You  need  not  necessarily  be  harsh,  a  little 
quick,  sharp  sarcasm  that  will  make  the  school 
laugh  with  you  at  the  offender,  is  one  of  the 
most  potent  weapons  you  can  use.  If  you  are 
not  sharp  enough  or  quick  enough  and  the  pu- 
pils laugh  at  you  instead  of  with  you,  you  lose. 

However  successful  a  proceeding  of  this  sort 
may  be,  do  not  always  do  the  same  thing;  an 
unexpected  punishment,  especially  if  it  have  the 
elements  of  poetic  justice,  is  often  more  effec- 
tive than  a  commonplace  penalty  that  is  much 
more  severe. 

If,  as  not  infrequently  happens,  a  boy  has  a 
bad  cough  that  sounds  unnatural  and  proves 
very  disturbing,  it  is  much  more  effective  to  send 
him  to  the  principal  or  to  his  parent,  with  a 
note  stating  that  he  has  such  a  bad  cough  that 
he  can  not  be  allowed  in  the  class-room  until  it 
is  better,  than  to  punish  him  directly.  Under 
such  circumstances  I  have  seen  some  remarkably 
quick  cures  of  distressing  pulmonary  affections. 

If  a  boy  persists  in  standing  up  in  his  seat 
or  moving  about  at  times  when  he  should  remain 
seated,  I  find  that  an  hour  or  two  of  continuous 
standing  is  very  effective.  One  who  has  stood 
through  a  performance  at  the  theater  knows 
something  of  the  probable  feelings  of  the  youth. 
Of  course  he  must  be  so  placed  and  controlled 

67 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

as  not  to  be  able  to  amuse  himself  at  the  teach- 
er's expense  and  to  the  disturbance  of  the  rest 
of  the  room. 

In  the  hands  of  a  weak  teacher  such  punish- 
ments are  almost  sure  to  degenerate  into  a 
farce,  to  the  great  entertainment  of  the  pupils, 
and  the  utter  discomfiture  of  the  teacher,  but 
a  teacher  of  this  sort  is  pretty  sure  to  make  a 
mess  of  any  kind  of  discipline.  Because  this 
kind  of  punishment  may  be  abused  is  hardly 
a  good  reason  why  it  should  not  be  used. 

I  find  boys  more  often  need  sharp,  short  checks 
than  girls,  as  girls  are  naturally  more  tractable 
than  boys.  But  a  boy  rarely  bears  ill-Avill  to- 
ward a  teacher  for  giving  him  his  just  deserts, 
while  a  girl's  sense  of  justice  is  much  less  keen, 
and  she  may  bear  a  long  grudge  for  a  punish- 
ment that  was  eminently  fair  and  just.  A 
great  deal  of  care  can  be  used  to  advantage  in 
punishing  girls,  as  they  are  very  sensitive  to 
ridicule,  and  a  reprimand  that  will  only  make 
a  boy  grin  sheepishly,  Avill  often  move  a  girl 
to  tears  and  a  long  period  of  sulks. 

After  one  has  won  the  first  few  trials  of 
strength,  things  will  settle  down  to  a  comforta- 
ble calm,  broken  occasionally  by  sporadic  out- 
breaks that  will  occur,  even  under  the  best  man- 
agement.    These  should  not  cause  the  teacher 

68 


CONTROL    OF    PUPILS 

any  anxiety,  as  they  are  almost  necessary  inci- 
dents of  school  life.  A  school  composed  of  dul- 
lards and  ninnys  might  never  make  any  trouble ; 
but  a  school  of  live,  active  youngsters  is  sure 
to  explode  now  and  then. 

Make  just  as  few  rules  as  possible,  and  do 
not  lay  down  exact  penalties  for  offenses;  if 
you  do,  you  will  find  yourself  in  very  disagree- 
able situations  that  might  easily  have  been 
avoided.  State  that  the  penalty  is  likely  to  be 
enforced,  if  you  like,  but  always  reserve  the 
right  to  use  your  own  discretion. 

State  all  but  the  most  vital  rules  as  requests 
or  as  requirements  of  ordinary  good  behavior, 
but  when  offenses  against  these  requests  or  sug- 
gestions occur,  do  not  argue  or  threaten  what 
you  will  do  next  time,  but  inflict  at  once  a  just 
and  adequate  penalty.  If  you  can  be  depended 
upon  to  say,  "I  will  do  thus  and  so  if  you  do  it 
again,"  the  alert  youth  is  pretty  sure  to  yield 
to  the  temptation  to  "do  it  just  once,"  feeling 
secure  from  danger  the  first  time. 

Avoid  as  you  would  the  Evil  One  himself  any 
appearance  of  personal  vengeance,  or  even  of 
purely  retributive  punishment.  Strive  in  every 
way  to  show  that  your  punishments  are  to  pre- 
vent future  offenses,  not  to  "pay  up"  for  past 
misdeeds. 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

Perhaps  the  two  most  vital  requirements  for 
.success  in  school  discipline  are  self-control  and 
justness.  These  qualities  will  win  respect  and 
admiration  for  the  strictest  disciplinarian,  while 
the  good-natured  "easy"  teacher  has  neither. 

If  you  can  not  control  yourself,  you  can  not 
satisfactorily  control  others.  I  have  often  seen 
teachers  so  easily  aroused  to  a  passion,  which 
vented  itself  chiefly  in  angry  abuse  and  threats, 
that  their  pupils  would  purposely  stir  them  for 
the  purpose  of  enjoying  the  degrading  diversion 
furnished. 

By  sheer  force  of  mind  and  tongue,  or  as  a 
last  resort,  by  physical  force,  one  may  keep  or- 
der, but  keeping  order  is  no  more  controlling 
one's  pupils  than  sitting  on  the  safety  valve  is 
putting  out  the  fire  under  the  boilers.  You  do 
not  control  until  you  control  mind  as  well  as 
body.  Here  lies  the  danger  of  corporal  punish- 
ment. It  is  often  used  to  compel  order  and  de- 
ludes the  teacher  into  a  belief  that  he  has  con- 
trol when  he  has  only  the  outward  obedience  due 
to  fear. 

Although  quickness  is  almost  imperative  at 
times,  it  does  not  necessitate  even  the  appearance 
of  anger.  Let  the  offense  be  treated  as  entirely 
impersonal  and  a  detriment  to  the  welfare  of  all. 
If  matters  are  to  be  discussed  as  personal,  let 

70 


CONTROL    OF    PUPILS 

them  be  discussed  in  a  friendly  way  with  the 
pupil  alone. 

Pupils  are  so  different  that  the  same  offense 
by  two  different  pupils  must  be  treated  in  very 
different  ways.  Circumstances  also  alter  cases 
very  materially.  It  is  often  difficult  to  treat  a 
case  individually  in  this  manner  without  laying 
yourself  open  to  the  charge  of  "partiality,"  but 
if  you  attempt  in  good  faith  to  be  absolutely 
just,  while  you  may  be  misunderstood  at  first, 
unless  you  are  woefully  lacking  in  judgment, 
your  intentions  will,  in  the  long  run,  receive  as 
near  their  true  estimate  as  anything  human  ever 
gets.  For  these  keen-eyed  youngsters  of  ours 
are  as  fair-minded  as  the  goddess  herself.  If 
a  pupil  has  the  appearance  of  a  genuine  feeling 
of  injustice,  go  far  out  of  your  way  to  explain 
the  case  until  you  are  certain  that  your  efforts 
are  wasted.  After  your  explanation,  insist  that 
all  outward  remonstrance  be  stopped  at  once. 

We  are  all  fallible  and  prone  to  make  mistakes. 
When  you  find  yourself  mistaken,  acknowledge 
it  at  once,  fully  and  frankly.  If  your  mistake 
has  been  of  a  personal  nature,  apologize  and 
make  as  full  reparation  as  possible.  If  this  is 
done  in  a  frank,  manly  way,  you  will  always 
gain  and  never  lose,  unless  you  are  a  hopeless 
blunderer  and  unfit  for  the  school-room. 

71 


SUCCESSFUL   TEACHING 

You  may  have  almost  perfect  outward  control 
and  the  entire  respect  of  your  pupils  with  lit- 
tle or  no  affection  toward  you.  Affection  you 
can  not  have  in  any  considerable  degree  unless 
you,  yourself,  have  an  affection  for  the  un- 
trained and  chaotic,  often  rebellious,  but  essen- 
tially open  and  plastic  natures,  that  look  out  at 
you  from  the  windows  of  those  unlined  faces 
that  greet  you  every  morning. 

Love  is  the  greatest  thing  in  the  world  in  the 
school-room  or  out,  and  he  who  gives  and  gains 
has  the  key  to  the  control  of  young  minds  and 
hearts,  and  he  has  it  not  for  the  hour  or  for  the 
day,  but  for  all  time— and  perhaps  beyond. 


72 


How  to  Teach  Children  to 
Think 

BY    AGNES    C.    RALPH 


HOW  TO  TEACH  CHILDREN  TO  THINK 

There  are  many  phases  of  complaint  on  the 
lips  of  teachers  and  parents  that  imply  the  de- 
sirability of  the  "thinking"  process  on  the  part 
of  their  charges. 

' '  He  can  not  think  out  a  problem  for  himself. ' ' 
"Her    examinations    are    poor    because    she 
doesn't  think." 

"He  doesn't  mean  to  (commit  this  or  that 
fault),  but  he  doesn't  think." 
"My  daughter  never  thinks  for  herself." 
"In  their  nature-study  they  do  not  think." 
There  are  different  shades  of  meaning  in  these 
various  accusations.  In  the  first,  reasoning  pro- 
cesses as  applied  to  arithmetic  and  algebra  seem 
to  be  in  the  mind  of  the  speaker.  One  trouble 
with  many  children  who  are  set  down  in  the 
category  of  non-thinkers,  is,  that  either  as  a 
whole,  or  in  its  parts,  they  fail  to  visualize  a 
problem.  Another  almost  insurmountable  dif- 
ficulty is  self-consciousness,  which  is  often  re- 
placed by  an  overwhelming  consciousness  of  en- 
vironment. A  method  of  doing  away  with  the 
two  latter  troubles,  and  furnishing  mental  pic- 

75 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

tures  until  the  child  learns  their  value,  and 
forms  the  visualizing  habit,  is  a  sort  of  "play- 
hypnotism,"  as  follows: 

Let  the  room  be  quiet — so  quiet  there  is  noth- 
ing to  distract  you.  Require  the  children  to  lay 
their  heads  on  the  desks,  shut  their  eyes,  and 
rest  for  an  instant, — not  for  long,  for  fear  of 
day-dreams.  Without  allowing  them  to  awake 
from  their  play-sleep,  picture  to  them  in  brief, 
vivid  sentences,  without  repetition  or  unneces- 
sary detail,  the  parts  of  the  problem  in  their 
proper  relations.  Ask  the  vital  questions,  and 
after  a  moment  call  for  volunteers.  Not  all, 
but  more  than  before,  will  be  ready  with  the 
answer. 

An  apparent  failure  to  think  often  arises  from 
failure  to  understand  the  premises.  Questions 
on  premises  only  reveal  the  error,  and  the  young 
person  is  placed  in  a  position  to  reason  to  the 
end. 

Ordinary  class-work  seldom  develops  thinkers. 
It  is  possible,  however,  to  handle  a  class  as  a 
collection  of  individuals,  but  no  one  of  the  col- 
lection must  be  allowed  to  "suggest"  to  the 
others.  Ideas  developed  should  be  written  down. 
After  the  matter  at  hand  has  been  exhaustively 
presented,  and  time  for  thinking  allowed,  then 
the  written  conclusions  may  be  read  aloud.    This 

76 


TEACHING    TO    THINK 

leads  to  a  sort  of  game  of  conclusions  wrought 
out  in  some  such  way  as  this: 

''There  is  a  certain  conclusion  which  I  wish 
each  one  of  you  to  discover  for  herself  from 
the  directions  I  am  going  to  give  you.  It  is  like 
a  nut  hidden  in  several  shells,  and  I  want  you 
to  take  them  off,  one  by  one,  to  see  what  is  inside. 
You  will  not  know  what  I  am  driving  at,  at 
first,  but  watch! 

1.  You  may  divide  x^  by  x  and  write  problem 
and  answer  on  your  paper. 

2.  You  may  write  the  fraction  JEl  and  its 
quotient. 

3.  This  time  I  want  you  to  put  down  the  pro- 
cess by  which  you  obtain  the  quotient.  Do  noth- 
ing mentally  that  does  not  appear  on  your  pa- 
per.   Solve  x*^ 

27 
X 

(I  expect  from  this  to  obtain  the  form 

4.  In  the  same  manner  as  (3),  solve  -^ 

Is  number  four  in  exactly  the  same  form  as 
number  three?    Be  sure  of  this. 

Is  your  quotient  x  with  an  exponent  ? 

Do  not  tell  me  what  the  quotient  is,  but  at 
the  left  of-f^in  (4),  write  the  sign  of  equal- 
77 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

ity.  Now  place  at  the  left  of  that,  what  you 
would  most  naturally  write  as  the  quotient  of  -^ 

Study  what  you  have  and  write  a  conclusion 
as  to  the  value  of  x". 

Substitute  various  values  for  x  in  expression 
(4),  and  see  if  this  value  is  always  the  same, 
no  matter  what  x  equals. 

(a)  a'—l 

(b)  y'-l 

(c)  5^—? 

id)   r-? 

Read  me  what  you  have  written  under  one, 
two,  three,  and  four,  together  with  your  con- 
clusion and  the  answers  to  (a),  (6),  (c)  and  {d). 

The  second  complaint  cited  at  the  beginning 
of  this  writing  will  never  be  relieved  until  the 
child  concerned  has  herself  developed  the  criti- 
cal faculty.  Her  written  work  must  be  per- 
formed under  circumstances  accompanied  by  no 
nervous  strain,  so  that  the  excuse  of  being  * '  rat- 
tled" need  not  be  offered.  If  possible,  make  it 
so  pleasant  that  she  enjoys  it.  Then  persuade 
her  to  criticise  it  thoroughly  before  giving  it 
to  you. 

I  returned  a  paper  to  a  boy  the  other  day 
with  the  remark,  "There  are  five  mistakes  on 
it." 

78 


TEACHING    TO    THINK 

"1  can't  find  any,"  he  growled,  knowing  that 
statement  and  illustration  were  as  he  had  learned 
them.  I  said  nothing,  and  in  a  few  moments  he 
had  brought  back  the  paper  with  two  plurals 
and  two  missing  letters  where  they  rightly  be- 
longed. 

''I  can  find  but  four,"  he  announced,  a  lit- 
tle more  pleasantly. 

"There  are  five,"  I  answered. 

"Oh,  capital  P!"  and  he  dived  at  his  paper 
with  an  actual  smile. 

The  practice  of  discovering  his  own  mistakes 
is  invaluable  to  this  sort  of  boy,  since  he  passes 
as  a  poor  student,  merely  because  of  heedless- 
ness. I  should  advise  the  criticism  of  each  oth- 
er's papers  as  a  regular  exercise  in  all  classes. 

Thoughtlessness  of  the  third  sort  occurs  be- 
cause the  wounds  of  former  experiences  do  not 
cut  deeply  enough  into  the  memory.  A  natural 
impulsiveness  can  be  curbed  by  the  recollection 
of  former  disaster.  I  do  not  intend  by  this  to 
advocate  severity  of  punishment;  quite  the 
opposite,  but  impressivencss  of  punishment,  to 
the  extent  of  affecting  the  memory,  and  arous- 
ing the  sensitiveness  so  that  it  may  not  be  indif- 
ferent to  scars. 

The  mind  that  does  not  plan  for  itself,  pro- 
vide for  emergencies,  and  arrange  its  future,  be 

79 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

that  future  limited  to  the  little  to-morrow  of  a 
school-child,  needs  stimulation.  The  habit  of 
forethought  will  come,  like  other  habits,  by 
repetition.  The  natural  punishment  is  that  the 
child  should  go  without  what  it  has  failed  to 
provide  or  plan  for.  But  beware  of  cultivating 
indifference.  Simply  give  your  daughter  cer- 
tain responsibilities  and  praise  her  for  fore- 
thought in  connection  with  them  until  it  becomes 
a  pleasure  and  a  habit. 

The  last  complaint,  like  the  first,  is  of  failure 
to  use  reasoning  powers.  Children  do  not  read- 
ily see  the  problems  of  nature-study.  A  dis- 
gusted boy  frequently  meets  you  with,  "I  don't 
see  anything  there  to  study,"  when  you  give 
him  a  leaf  or  flower.  Rouse  his  interest,  first 
of  all;  perhaps  by  telling  him  something  won- 
derful about  the  cells  and  growth,  that  can  be 
seen  with  a  powerful  microscope,  and  that  he 
shall  see  by  and  by,  when  he  studies  botany  in 
the  high  school ;  perhaps  by  giving  him  a  strange- 
ly marked  leaf  with  labyrinthine  tracery  on  it, 
and  leaving  him  to  discover  why  it  differs  from 
those  his  fellows  are  patiently  studying.  Let 
him  find  the  tiny  worm  under  the  epidermis, 
and  then  present  him  with  the  problem  of  how 
it  came  there  and  what  its  future  is  to  be.  When 
his  real  interest  in  nature  is  aroused  he  will  be 

80 


TEACHING    TO    THINK 

more  content  to  plod  on  through  the  drudgery 
of  shapes,  margins,  bases,  etc. 

The  solution  of  a  number  of  nature's  prob- 
lems will  suggest  others,  and  the  children  work- 
ing with  you  may  (I  am  not  too  sanguine)  ac- 
quire the  habit  of  reading  problems  in  the  Old 
Nature-Book  for  themselves. 


81 


Advantages  of  Memory  Work 


BY    W.    C.    HEWITT 


ADVANTAGES  OP  MEMORY  WORK 

The  writer  of  this  paper  has  instructed  young 
people  and  their  teachers  for  a  quarter  of  a 
century,  and  this  essay  is  a  brief  expression  of 
the  views  that  have  grown  out  of  this  face  to 
face  contact  with  them  in  school  and  institute. 

That  the  discussion  may  be  practical,  we  shall 
discuss  the  subject  in  the  following  order: 

What  should  be  memorized. 

How  shall  we  go  about  it? 

The  advantages. 

I. — At  the  outset  we  call  attention  to  the  fact 
that  there  is  a  distinction  between  commitable 
and  readable  selections.  Some  people  conclude 
that  if  a  piece  is  "interesting,"  or  if  children 
like  it,  it  is  fit  to  be  memorized.  Here  lies  a 
serious  error  which  is  the  cause  of  children  be- 
ing taught  a  lot  of  stuff  called  "memory  gems" 
— much  of  which  is  silly  and  will  not  outlast 
the  period  of  the  second  reader.  In  books  for 
memorizing  I  find  given  such  selections  as  "The 
Raven,"  "Charge  of  the  Light  Brigade,"  "The 
Owl  and  the  Pussy  Cat,"  and  "Little  Orphan 
Annie." 

We  are  not  saying  that  these  are  not  worth 

85 


SUCCESSFUL   TEACHING 

reading — they  are  all  interesting — but  they  are 
not  good  material  for  memory  work. 

1.  If  a  whole  poem  is  chosen  for  memorizing 
it  should  be  short. 

In  the  long  poem  it  is  difficult  to  keep  the 
thoughts  together,  and  because  it  can  so  seldom 
be  quoted  in  its  entirety,  it  is  forgotten. 

Gray's  "Elegy"  has  been  called  a  perfect 
piece  of  literature,  but  it  is  too  long  to  be  com- 
mitted in  its  entirety — the  illuminating  points 
are  confined  to  a  dozen  brilliant  stanzas. 

The  message  of  the  eighteenth  Psalm  is  as 
precious  as  that  of  the  first,  the  eighth  or  twenty- 
third — yet  I  have  never  found  a  person  who 
could  say  the  eighteenth,  but  I  have  known  many 
who  could  and  did  use  the  three  others  in  every- 
day conversation.  An  ideal  length  for  a  com- 
plete poem  is  found  in  such  as  ''Abou  Ben 
Adhem,"  "The  Nightingale  and  the  Glow- 
worm," "Crossing  the  Bar,"  or  Burroughs' 
"My  Own  Shall  Come  to  Me." 

2.  If  the  poem  is  a  long  one  only  so  much  of 
it  should  be  memorized  as  contains  the  illumi- 
nating point  of  the  selection.  This  "illuminat- 
ing point"  is  always  a  noble  thought,  nobly  ex- 
pressed. With  respect  to  the  extent  of  its  ap- 
plication to  life,  this  illuminating  point  may 
be  designated  as  the  "general,  or  universal  ele- 

86 


MEMORY   WORK 

ment,"  because  it  is  a  truth  that  applies  to 
every  class  and  condition  of  men,  and  so  finds 
an  interpreter  in  high  and  low  alike;  Avith  re- 
spect to  its  importance  it  may  be  called  the 
soul  of  the  poem. 

Many  poems  contain  more  than  one  of  these 
universal  elements,  and  so  it  is  that  some  poems 
have  been  full  of  help  to  the  race  of  mankind. 

The  Proverbs  and  the  sayings  of  Jesus  Christ 
are  full  of  these  illuminated  universal  elements. 

Let  us  illustrate  our  meaning: 

Take  O'Reilly's  ''Pilgrim  Fathers;"  the  uni- 
versal element  is  the  fourteen  lines  beginning 
with  "One  righteous  word  for  law — the  com- 
mon will." 

In  "Marco  Bozzaris" — the  last  two  stanzas. 

In  Whittier's  "Maud  MuUer"  it  is  found  in 
the  last  twelve  lines. 

In  Kings  II,  xx,  it  is  condensed  in  the  elev- 
enth verse. 

I  once  visited  a  grammar  school  where  the 
whole  class  had  read  "  Snow-Bound, "  and  had 
committed  to  memory  the  first  sixty-five  lines, 
and  not  one  of  them  could  recite  any  of  the 
beautiful  passages  beginning  with  the  following 
lines : 

"Henceforward  listen  as  we  will" 

"Our  Uncle  innocent  of  books" 

87 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

"Dear  Aunt  whose  smile  of  cheer,"  or 
"But  still  I  wait  with  ear  and  eye." 
We  do  not  seek  to  restrict  individual  choice 
in  these  matters,  but  surely  he  is  in  error  who 
passes  by  Corinthians  I,  xiii,  and  commits  to 
memory  the  first  seventeen  verses  of  Matthew  i. 
3.  Since  life  is  many-sided,  the  memory  se- 
lections should  be  chosen  to  meet  the  needs  of 
the  many-sided  child. 

I  once  knew  an  intermediate  teacher,  who  un- 
der the  influence  of  the  nature  study  idea,  taught 
only  "nature"  poems.  No  wonder  the  pupils 
perished  from  soul  starvation. 

a.  First  of  all,  we  are  the  children  of  God, 
and  so  I  put  first  those  selections  that  feed  and 
freshen  the  soul  for  daily  life  and  need. 

Good  illustrations  of  this  class  of  selections 
are: 

Psalm  xxiii;  Marvel's  Paraphrase  of  Psalm 
xix;  "Abou  Ben  Adhem:"  Lowell's  "Yusseuf ;" 
a  part  of  "The  Chambered  Nautilus;"  Cow- 
per's  "Providence;"  and  Tennyson's  "Crossing 
the  Bar." 

b.  We  are  sons  of  God,  but  citizens  of  the  Re- 
public ;  so  every  child  should  know  a  few  of  the 
national  hymns  and  poems.  These  fit  him  to 
think  of  his  country  nobly,  to  live  honorably, 
and  to  serve  her  valiantly. 

88 


MEMORY   WORK 

Illustrations:  "America;"  the  first  fourteen 
lines  of  "The  Declaration  of  Independence;" 
Lincoln's  Gettysburg  Address;  the  colors  and 
meaning  of  the  flag  in  Butterworth 's  "White 
Bordered  Flag;"  Wilder 's  "Stand  by  the 
Flag;"  Scott's  "Breathes  there  a  Man,"  and 
the  concluding  lines  of  Longfellow's  "Building 
of  the  Ship." 

c.  The  mind  loves  to  contemplate  ideal  types 
of  character,  and  so  children  should  memorize 
selections  that  set  forth  noble  ideals  of  man- 
hood and  womanhood.  Such  selections  as  the 
following  have  proved  very  efficient  toward  this 
end:  " Ecclesiastes  xxxi:  10-31;  Lee's  descrip- 
tion of  Washington;  Burns'  Epitaph  on  him- 
self; Goldsmith's  Village  Preacher;  and  the  par- 
able of  the  House  on  the  Rock,  Matt.  vii. 

d.  The  child  needs  a  philosophy  of  life.  At 
best,  with  most  of  us  life  is  very  imperfect,  but 
without  some  noble  conception  of  duty  beyond 
us  and  above  us,  it  is  bound  to  be  worse. 

Experience  shows  us  that  maxim-trained  men 
have  the  advantage  in  life's  race. 

Such  selections  as  the  following  are  sure  to 
leaves  their  impress  on  character:  Lowell's 
"They  are  slaves  who  fear  to  speak  for  the 
fallen  and  the  weak;"  Mackay's  "Cleon  Hath  a 
MUlion  Acres;"  Burns'  "For  a'  That;"  Long- 

89 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

fellow's  "Builders;"   and   the   parable   of   the 
Talents,  Matt.  xxv. 

II. — Having  determined  what  kinds  of  se- 
lections should  be  taught  for  memory  work,  let 
us  now  consider  how  we  should  go  about  it. 

1.  Teachers  should  not  ask  children  to  learn 
selections  which  they  themselves  do  not  know. 
In  the  writer's  experience  much  of  the  failure 
to  make  memory-work  inspiring  is  that  teachers 
do  not  move  forward  in  front. 

It  has  been  a  very  common  experience  to  find 
teachers  of  the  grades  unable  themselves  to  re- 
cite the  amount  they  have  required  of  their 
pupils.  Where  such  a  condition  exists  memory 
work  is  sure  to  be  a  fizzle. 

2.  Only  a  few  lines  should  be  given  at  a  time. 
This  will  make  the  task  easy  and  give  pupils  a 
chance  to  think  over  the  idea.  If  the  teacher 
learns  the  selection  with  the  class  there  will  be 
little  danger  of  assigning  too  much  to  be  learned. 

3.  After  the  selection  has  been  learned  and 
recited  several  times,  it  should  be  copied  in  a 
book,  and  preserved.  Teachers  who  do  not  do 
this  lose  three-fourths  of  the  value  of  the  exer- 
cise. If  selections  are  not  written  down  they 
are  only  half  memorized,  and  of  course  will  pass 
from  the  memory  very  easily. 

4.  Memorized  selections  should  be  often  re- 

90 


MEMORY   WORK 

viewed.  For  a  thing  to  get  fixed  permanently  in 
the  mind  it  must  be  forgotten  and  relearned  sev- 
eral times.  Teachers  of  the  higher  grades  often 
make  no  use  of  what  the  child  has  already 
learned,  and  so  many  a  beautiful  selection  rises 
in  clouds  and  sets  in  darkness. 

5.  The  whole  of  the  universal  element  should 
be  committed  to  memory.  Scrappy,  half-com- 
pleted selections  are  an  abomination. 

Sometimes  the  literary  strength  is  of  almost 
as  much  importance  as  the  thought  itself,  and 
to  stop  with  work  half  done  is  a  serious  error. 

Sometimes  it  is  necessary  to  learn  the  whole 
poem  so  as  not  to  lose  the  literary  unity.  I  do 
not  see  how  any  one  could  teach  less  than  the 
whole  of  such  poems  as  "The  Mountain  and  the 
Squirrel;"  "Barbara  Frietchie;"  "Hohenlin- 
den;"  or  "The  Old  Clock  on  the  Stairs." 

6.  A  very  effective  way  of  keeping  the  words 
fresh  in  mind,  and  the  structure  of  the  literary 
unity  intact,  is  for  the  teacher  or  some  pupil  to 
start  in  and  read,  say  "  Snow-Bound ; "  and 
whenever  a  place  is  reached  where  the  pupil 
can  quote  the  thought,  the  reader  is  to  stop  and 
let  the  pupil  finish  the  quotation. 

7.  When  a  beautiful  selection  has  been  learned 
the  question  "What  in  this  is  beautiful,  and 
why?"  is  often  an  excellent  stimulus  to  thought. 

91 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

III. — The  advantages  of  memory  work  are 
many. 

1.  It  keeps  a  noble  thought  fixed  before  the 
mind. 

Experience  shows  that  the  piTpils  who  commit 
to  memory  very  simple  things  do  great  things 
with  them:  they  quote  them  to  others,  use  them 
in  writing,  and  in  hours  of  silence  or  temptation, 
turn  them  over  in  their  minds. 

If  a  thing  is  read  but  once  or  twice  there  is 
very  little  to  think  over — indeed  much  reading 
destroys  thinking,  just  as  two  pictures  on  the 
same  negative  blur  each  other. 

What  is  in  the  memory  is  in  the  mind,  and 
is  independent  of  book,  teacher,  or  circumstance. 

2.  The  choice  selection  is  apt  to  contain  new 
words,  and  so  there  is  a  continual  enlargement 
of  the  vocabulary. 

In  making  up  the  memory  books  it  is  an  ex- 
cellent plan  to  keep  a  page  or  two  for  new 
words,  and  then  have  stimulating  spelling  les- 
sons and  sentence  exercises.  Another  is  for  the 
teacher  to  quote  some  peculiar  word  or  phrase 
and  let  the  pupil  name  the  poem  and  give  the 
quotation. 

During  a  six  months'  experience  with  forty- 
five  pupils  in  a  ninth  grade  the  average  number 
of  new  words  gained  for  each  pupil  under  this 

92 


MEMORY   WORK 

plan  was  one  hundred  and  five.  Of  course  the  list 
was  not  large,  but  it  represented  new  ideas,  and 
a  genuine  and  enthusiastic  progression  in  word- 
study.  I  think  I  never  saw  such  progress  in 
spelling  in  any  corresponding  length  of  time. 

Incidentally,  and  with  no  special  lesson  from 
the  teacher,  this  copying  of  selections  and  re- 
writing of  them  gave  the  class  a  knowledge  of 
practical  punctuation  that  proved  sufficient  for 
all  ordinary  uses. 

3.  The  most  important  influence  that  I  have 
ever  noticed  from  the  memory-training  is  in  the 
realm  of  what  might  be  termed  the  child's  inner 
thinking.  Andrew  D.  White,  in  his  autobiog- 
raphy, refers  to  this  influence  when,  in  speaking 
of  his  teacher,  Joseph  Allen,  he  says:  "I  recall 
among  the  treasures  of  literature  thus  gained, 
extracts  that  have  been  precious  to  me  ever 
since  in  many  a  weary  and  sleepless  hour  on 
land  and  sea." 

When  principal  of  a  union  city  high  school 
I  sent  out  questions  to  about  eighty  of  the  citi- 
zens, asking  among  other  things,  what  influence, 
if  any,  beautiful  memorized  thoughts  had  had 
upon  their  lives.  The  testimony  was  almost  uni- 
versal in  attributing  a  greater  success  in  life 
to  the  noble  selections  committed  to  memory 
when  they  were  children. 
93 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

What,  perhaps,  to  me,  was  strangest  of  all, 
was  that  in  nearly  every  ease  there  was  some 
reference  to  the  beauty  in  which  the  thought 
was  clothed. 

Thus  all  testimony  and  experience  seem  to 
unite  in  attributing  great  importance  to  the 
thoughts  committed  to  memory  in  childhood. 
Noble  thoughts  nobly  expressed  are  surely  the 
proper  seeds  for  the  soul  of  the  child,  for  he 
will  gather  their  fruit  often  in  the  advancing 
years. 

Shall  we  not  say  of  all  noble  words  of  the 
great  and  good  what  was  said  of  the  Ancient 
Law:  "Bind  them  about  thy  neck,  write  them 
on  the  table  of  thine  heart?" 


94 


How  Best  to 
Teach  Concentration 

BY    KATE    WALTON 


HOW  BEST  TO  TEACH  CONCENTRATION 

The  writer  wishes  to  state,  by  way  of  intro- 
duction, that  the  ideas  here  stated  are  the  re- 
sult of  experience  in  many  grades,  and  in  many 
classes  of  schools — country  schools  of  New  York 
and  Indiana,  village  schools  in  the  latter  state, 
city  schools  of  Indiana,  New  Jersey  and  New 
York,  and  in  varied  private  tutoring.  Most  of 
the  regular  teaching  was  in  seventh  and  eighth 
grammar  grades,  but  recent  substitute  work, 
in  classes  ranging  from  second  year  primary  to 
high-school  seniors,  has  been  an  excellent  oppor- 
tunity for  the  verification  or  modification  of 
theories  previously  held. 

As  a  result  of  this  varied  work  she  is  becom- 
ing daily  more  convinced  that  the  power  of  con- 
centration, under  any  given  conditions,  depends 
much  more  on  heredity  and  training  than  on 
the  will  of  the  pupil.  While  substituting  one 
day  here  and  the  next  there,  she  offered  special 
inducements  for  concentration,  and  often  found 
that  the  pupils  most  anxious  to  do  as  required 
were  the  least  able.  Let  the  untrained  child 
realize  his  need  as  fully  as  may  be,  and  use 
his  full  power,  his  success  is  usually  very  slight 

97 


SUCCESSFUL   TEACHING 

compared  with  that  of  the  one  who  has  had  sys- 
tematic training  in  concentration.  In  a  few 
cases,  it  has  almost  seemed  that  the  habit  of 
careful  attention  had  become  so  nearly  auto- 
matic with  regular  training,  that  wavering  at- 
tention was  as  nearly  impossible  to  those  chil- 
dren, as  steady  application  is  to  most. 

After  teaching,  as  stated  above,  chiefly  in 
seventh  and  eighth  grades,  and  comparing  pu- 
pils of  various  schools  and  cities,  the  writer  is 
more  than  ever  impressed  with  the  need  of  be- 
ginning this  drill  with  the  first  hours  the  chil- 
dren spend  in  school,  and  never  forgetting 
through  the  entire  course  its  fundamental  value 
in  present  work,  and  for  future  power. 

Any  one  who  has  had  any  experience  with 
little  children  knows  their  very  limited  power 
of  attention  to  one  object,  even  when  aided  by 
the  presence  of  bright  colors  and  varied  sound 
or  movement,  and  realizes  the  futility  of  expect- 
ing children  just  entering  school  to  concentrate 
for  more  than  one  or  two  minutes  on  work  re- 
quiring mental  effort  only.  To  give  a  small 
child  a  book  and  tell  him  to  study  or  read,  is 
worse  than  loss  of  effort,  for  it  is  a  sure  prepara- 
tion for  lost  study  hours  in  the  future.  When 
pupils  of  these  lower  grades  are  left  to  work 
alone,    as    they    must    in    the    crowded    city 

98 


CONCENTRATION 

schools  and  in  the  poorly  graded  country  ones, 
and  as  they  ought  sometimes  to  be  for  their 
own  development  in  self-reliance,  let  the  teacher 
see  that  the  time  is  short,  not  over  fifteen  min- 
utes at  the  most,  and  that  the  work  assigned  is 
really  busy  work,  work  employing  hands  as  well 
as  eyes  and  minds,  work  so  varied  and  alive  with 
interest  to  the  pupils  that  the  tendency  will  be 
toward,  not  away  from,  attention  to  it.  And 
let  the  beginning  of  study,  as  the  term  is  meant 
in  higher  grades,  be  under  the  direct  supervi- 
sion of  the  teacher,  that  she  may  change  the 
work  as  soon  as  she  sees  the  children  begin  to 
turn  to  other  things. 

Grade  by  grade,  as  the  child  advances,  this 
power  should  increase,  both  in  intensity  and 
duration,  and,  in  the  writer's  opinion,  this  in- 
crease should  be,  in  the  mind  of  both  teacher 
and  pupil,  the  chief  basis  for  promotion. 

Altho  the  definite  plans  to  be  mentioned 
were  used  in  upper  grades  chiefly,  the  writer 
believes  that  the  principles  apply,  whatever  may 
be  the  age  of  the  pupils.  It  is  assumed  that  each 
teacher  has  two  divisions,  which  in  some  sub- 
jects recite  separately,  one  studying  while  the 
other  recites. 

Let  us  first  think  of  concentration  during  the 
recitation  period.     The  first  requisite  is  the  ap- 

99 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

preciation  by  both  teacher  and  pupil  of  its  value, 
for  tho  it  is  not  the  strongest  factor  in  abil- 
ity to  concentrate,  the  voluntarj^  action  of  the 
pupil  toward  that  end  is  by  no  means  an  unim- 
portant one.  This  voluntary  co-operation  of  the 
pupils  may  usually  be  secured  by  talks  with, 
not  to,  the  class,  with  illustrations  of  the  value 
of  this  power  of  concentration,  given  by  them 
from  various  occupations.  Later,  individual 
talks  may  be  needed  with  special  pupils. 

Above  all,  let  the  teacher  constantly  show  her 
appreciation  of  its  value,  by  her  methods  of 
work  and  discipline.  With  weak  grades,  in  par- 
ticular, as  far  as  possible  eliminate  disturbing 
elements,  such  as  interesting  objects  on  the  desks, 
movement  by  other  pupils,  visits  from  pupils  and 
teachers  of  other  rooms,  visitors  who  come  to 
see  the  teacher,  the  outside  street  noises,  and 
numerous  other  hindrances  known  to  every 
teacher.  But  if  these  must  exist,  try  to  help 
the  pupils  to  concentrate  their  thoughts  on  the 
work  despite  them,  and  to  look  on  the  unavoid- 
able interruptions  as  so  many  opportunities  to 
acquire  the  power  to  turn  again  to  work  as  if 
not  interrupted,  or  to  ignore  entirely  outside 
things.  Once,  when  working  in  an  unfinished 
building,  amidst  the  din  of  hammers  on  iron 
stairways,  the  shouts  of  the  workmen,  the  test- 

100 


CONCENTRATION 

ing  of  electric  bells,  and  the  talk  of  men  putting 
radiators  into  the  room,  the  teacher  was  surprised 
and  impressed  by  the  powers  the  sixth-year  pu- 
pils showed  of  working  steadily,  even  when  di- 
rections had  to  be  given  from  the  blackboard, 
as  the  teacher's  voice  could  not  be  heard  above 
the  uproar.  Make  the  pupils  feel  that,  for  fu- 
ture life  value,  the  passing  of  this  test  is  of 
more  value  than  100  per  cent,  in  arithmetic, 
geography,  or  spelling. 

Be  careful  that  the  work  is  varied,  alive,  and 
interesting  to  your  pupils,  to  assist  them  to  at- 
tend steadily,  but  do  not  forget  that,  aside  from 
the  end  in  view,  some  of  life's  work  is  drudgery, 
and  give  your  pupils  a  chance  to  become  accus- 
tomed to  work  carefully  and  steadily  on  work 
in  itself  not  interesting,  as  the  drudgery  of  long 
computations  in  mathematics,  or  of  learning 
new  words  in  foreign  languages.  Make  them 
feel  that  here  is  an  especially  fine  chance  to  ac- 
quire the  habit  of  attention,  and  in  particular  on 
the  one  or  two  subjects  each  child  finds  of  little 
interest  to  him — his  hard  subjects.  They  cease 
to  be  hard  when  the  boy  or  girl  looks  on  them 
as  the  tools  by  which  he  may  manufacture  a 
wished-for  power. 

The  teacher  should  not,  except  in  extreme 
eases,  interrupt  the  sequence  of  her  work  by  re- 


101 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

bukes  to  pupils  reciting,  or  studying  in  another 
division.  The  loss  of  time  to  the  one  boy  or 
girl  idling  is  less  serious  than  the  loss  to  an 
entire  class.  Neither  should  she  allow  the  at- 
tention to  be  drawn  to  side  issues  by  some  chance 
suggestion  of  a  pupil. 

Be  sure  that  each  pupil  recites  distinctly 
enough  to  be  heard  with  ease  by  every  other, 
and  hold  each  child  responsible  for  a  knowledge 
of  all  that  has  been  said.  Keep  your  own  words 
distinct,  but  as  low  as  conditions  allow,  and 
don't,  ordinarily,  repeat.  Remember  we  can 
not  expect  pupils  to  attend  to  what  they  can 
not  hear,  nor  to  what  will  probably  be  immedi- 
ately repeated. 

Substituting  one  day  with  a  fourth-year 
class,  the  writer  was  surprised  at  the  conditions 
during  the  study  period,  when  two  rows  of  pu- 
pils were  very  busy  and  others  very  idle.  The 
answer  to  the  problem  was  received,  when  at 
the  beginning  of  the  recitation,  the  teacher  was 
informed  that  it  was  the  turn  of  a  certain  row, 
(one  of  the  studious  ones),  to  recite  first  in  geog- 
raphy that  day.  She  then  remembered  that 
among  the  directions  left  her  by  the  regular 
teacher  were  notices  of  whose  turn  it  was  to  pass 
first  to  the  board  that  day,  and  whose  to  recite 
first  in  the   various  classes.     A   few   minutes' 

102 


CONCENTRATION 

work  with  a  reading  class  in  that  room,  when 
but  one  pupil  apparently  heard  the  teacher's 
directions,  and  that  one  the  pupil  whose  turn 
it  was  next,  were  to  her  convincing  evidences  of 
the  evil  results  of  the  ' '  turn ' '  method  extensively 
used.  There  are,  as  every  teacher  knows,  occa- 
sions when  it  is  valuable,  but  it  is  certainly  de- 
structive to  concentration,  if  habitually  used. 

When  a  class  is  not  able  to  concentrate  well, 
great  care  must  be  taken  so  to  carry  on  the  reci- 
tation that  the  pupils  are  steadily  helped  toward 
it.  If  the  work  be  such  as  makes  it  possible,  fre- 
quent answers  written  to  hold  the  attention  to 
what  has  gone  before,  and  to  call  back  wander- 
ing minds,  will  help.  Often  in  mental  arithme- 
tic or  in  English,  it  saves  time  in  the  end,  to  have 
each  pupil  write  each  answer,  call  on  one  pupil 
to  recite,  have  all  compare,  and  report  by  stand- 
ing, uplifted  hand,  or  in  response  to  his  name. 
You  are  then  sure  that  each  pupil  has  done  all 
the  work,  and  no  time  has  been  allowed  for  inat- 
tention. This  should  be  unnecessary  in  a  trained 
class.  A  regular  or  frequent  collection  and  sur- 
vey of  these  papers  by  the  teacher  is  often  a 
great  incentive  to  careful,  attentive  work.  Don 't 
let  your  pupils  acquire  the  habit  of  inattention. 
If  in  helping  one  pupil,  who  is  backward,  the  re- 
turn to  them  and  help  the  backward  one  pri- 
vately. 

103 


SUCCESSFUL   TEACHING 

In  oral  work,  a  glance  into  the  eyes  of  each 
pupil  as  he  completes  his  work,  enables  the 
teacher  to  be  sure  that  no  one  is  shirking,  and 
it  can  be  given  so  quickly  that  no  time  will  be 
lost,  if  the  pupils  are  accustomed  to  look  up  to 
her  as  the  answer  is  obtained.  The  conditions 
during  the  study  hour  are  very  important,  for  it 
is  difficult  even  for  trained  pupils  to  study  while 
an  interesting  lesson  is  going  on  in  the  room.  Try 
so  to  arrange  your  program  that  when  the  geog- 
raphy, history,  or  literature  are  being  recited, 
the  pupils  studying  have  some  hand  work,  as 
written  arithmetic  or  English,  on  which  it  is 
much  easier  to  concentrate  than  on  mental  work 
only.  Then,  too,  have  the  pupils  feel  that  this 
study  time  is  the  especial  hour  in  which  to  gain 
power  of  concentration,  and  lead  them  to  make 
an  especial  effort  toward  uninterrupted  study. 

The  writer  once  used  special  drill  in  concen- 
tration for  an  unusually  weak  class  with  very 
encouraging  results.  The  class  was  a  2B  in  a 
great  eastern  city,  in  an  institution  where  desti- 
tute children  and  young  law  breakers  were  sent 
by  the  courts,  and  where  the  discipline  was 
rigid.  The  class  consisted  of  about  fifty  boys 
from  six  to  fourteen  years  old,  many  of  whom 
were  unable  to  read  the  first  pages  in  a  primer. 
They  seemed  to  have  no  power  of  attention  to 

104 


CONCENTRATION 

work.  Before  a  word  written  on  the  blackboard 
could  be  pronounced,  and  its  meaning  given  by 
the  pupils,  half  of  the  class  were  thinking  of 
something  outside.  Before  a  simple  one-step 
problem  could  be  solved,  half  had  forgotten  its 
conditions.  In  reading,  not  the  most  fascinat- 
ing story  or  fairy  tale  could  long  hold  their 
attention. 

Devices  were  used  to  hold  eyes  and  thus 
thoughts ;  directions  were  spelled  phonetically  to 
catch  recreant  ears,  and  special  attention  drills 
were  given  at  each  pause  in  the  work,  for  march- 
ing, roll  call,  and  the  other  possible  times.  The 
decisive  call ' '  attention ' '  was  followed  by  ' '  one ' ' 
when  the  feet  came  into  a  certain  specified  posi- 
tion at  once.  "Two"  was  the  signal  for  a  cer- 
tain position  of  body  and  arms,  and  at  "three" 
the  teacher  expected  to  see  directly  into  each 
boy's  eyes  as  she  glanced  toward  him.  This 
position  was  required  during  any  work  calling 
her  attention  from  the  class,  as  attention  to 
monitors,  roll  call,  or  writing  on  the  black- 
board, and  was  rigidly  enforced.  The  time  spent 
with  the  class  was  only  five  weeks,  but  the  results 
in  increase  of  power  of  concentration  were  en- 
couraging enough  to  lead  the  teacher  to  decide 
to  try  the  same  plan  again  when  she  had  a  weak 
class.     At  the  end  of  the  time  not  one  word 

105 


SUCCESSFUL   TEACHING 

but  two,  three,  and  often  four  could  be  discussed 
without  their  minds  wandering;  two  or  three 
problems  could  be  solved,  and  once  or  twice 
an  entire  lesson  was  read  with  the  attention  of 
all  but  one  or  two  pupils  steadily  upon  it. 

To  repeat  the  statement  made  at  the  start — 
the  will  of  the  pupils  is  a  great  help  to  concen- 
tration, but  it  can  not  take  the  place  of  syste- 
matic training,  of  a  fixed  habit  of  holding  the 
mind  steadily  to  one  thing, 


106 


How  to  Develop  the 
Conversational  Powers  of  Pupils 


BY    FLORA    ELMER 


HOW  TO  DEVELOP  THE  CONVERSATIONAL 
POWERS  OF    PUPILS 

In  order  to  be  a  good  speaker,  one  must  pri- 
marily be  brimful  of  thoughts  that  he  wishes 
to  express.  Yet  he  may  be  well  stocked  with  ex- 
cellent ideas  and  not  have  the  vocabulary  or 
fluency  of  speech  to  enable  him  to  make  his  con- 
versation attractive  and  interesting. 

Children,  from  American  homes,  if  not  of  a 
timid  nature,  have  considerable  ability  in  the 
line  of  conversation  when  they  enter  school. 
Most  of  the  pupils  in  our  large  cities  are  of  for- 
eign parentage,  however,  and  work  in  language 
must  necessarily  proceed  very  slowly. 

Quite  recently  I  saw  a  bright  young  teacher 
tell  a  long  story  to  an  infant  class.  She  related 
her  story  charmingly,  holding  the  little  ones 
spellbound.  But,  alas !  when  she  called  for  repe- 
titions, or  rather  reproductions,  none  were 
forthcoming.  I  could  not  have  repeated  the 
story  as  interestingly  as  she  did  myself,  and  the 
little  cherubs  about  us,  no  doubt,  realized  their 
lack  in  the  power  of  expression*  Finally,  after 
much  coaxing,  one  fair-haired  maiden  volunr- 
teered  to  reproduce  the  story,  and  succeeded  ad- 

109 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

miringly.  "That  is  the  way,"  said  the  teacher, 
turning  to  me.  "Ada,  or  John,  and  possibly 
Harold,  will  tell  a  story  for  me,  but  I  can't  get 
the  rest  to  talk.    They  won't  even  try." 

I  have  gone  through  the  same  discouragement, 
always  hoping  that  by  and  by  more  would  at- 
tempt to  imitate  Ada  and  John.  This  does 
happen  sometimes,  but  experience  has  taught 
me  that  all  must  have  something  to  say  in  the 
language  lesson.  The  work  must  be  planned 
to  benefit  the  majority.  "From  the  simple  to 
the  complex,"  this  is  the  most  vital  principle 
of  all  pedagogy.  Therefore,  proceed  slowly,  step 
by  step.     Begin  a  lesson  thus: 

To-day,  children,  I  want  each  one  of  you  to 
tell  me  something  about  your  baby  at  home, 
something  interesting,  something  that  I  would 
like  to  know  and  you  want  to  tell.  Quickly  will 
come  responses: 

Clara:    "Our  baby  can  walk." 
Bella:    "Our  baby  can  laugh." 
Hans:    "Our  baby  has  blue  eyes." 
Carl:    "Our  baby  has  got  two  legs."    Again 
Carl:    "Our  baby  has  two  legs." 

Gretchen:    "Our  baby  sleeps  all  the  time." 
Every  child  will  respond,  if  only  to  say :  '  *  We 
have  no  baby  at  our  home."    On  the  following 
days  talk  about  papa,  mamma,  teacher,  school, 

110 


CONVERSATIONAL   POWERS 

home,  etc  Every  child  begins  his  sentence  with 
"Our  house,"  which  soon  becomes  monotonous, 
so  I  suggest: "Let  me  see  how  many  of  you  can 
tell  me  something  about  your  home  and  not 
begin  with  "  'Our  house.'  "  Now  come  sen- 
tences like: 

The  roof  of  our  house  is  made  of  shingles. 

The  street  car  passes  our  house. 

We  live  in  a  two-story  house. 

Before  taking  the  regular  reading  lesson,  we 
always  read  the  picture.  It  tells  us  so  much 
if  we  but  stop  to  look. 

Picture  stories  furnish  excellent  opportunities. 
Give  the  boy  in  the  picture  a  name.  Also  name 
the  dog.  Now  let  John  tell  a  story  about  the 
child  and  dog.  Irma  may  then  give  her  version 
of  the  same.  This  brings  the  imagination  into 
play,  tests  the  child's  handling  of  words,  but 
makes  no  tax  on  his  memory. 

During  these  early  lessons  I  would  entertain 
the  children  with  stories,  but  as  yet  I  would 
require  no  reproductions.  They  will  come  in 
due  time,  but  will  be  very,  very  short  for  many 
weeks.  In  order  to  be  able  to  reproduce  a  story, 
tiie  pupils  must  have  no  difficulty  i'n  grasping 
the  thought,  and  the  incidents  in  the  narrative 
must  be  of  such  a  nature,  that  one  step  suggests 
the  following. 

Ill 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

Do  not  correct  mistakes  in  these  first  steps. 
Lead  the  child  to  speak  up  lively  and  do  not 
hamper  him  in  any  way.  Later  begin  by  calling 
attention  to  just  one  mistake.  If  one  mistake 
is  pointed  out,  it  will  probably  .make  some  im- 
pression on  him,  if  two  or  three  are  corrected, 
the  pupil  becomes  disgusted  and  will  pay  no 
attention  to  any. 

After  considerable  facility  in  reading  has  been 
attained,  pupils  should  reproduce  many  para- 
graphs that  they  read  silently.  Sometimes  let 
the  paragraph  be  read  orally,  but  as  many  syn- 
onyms inserted  as  possible.  Sometimes  change 
the  noun  from  singular  to  plural — verbs  and 
pronouns  correspondingly.  Again  change  the 
name  "Frank"  to  "Ella,"  then  changing  the 
gender  of  all  pronouns. 

Do  not  interfere  with  a  narrative  because 
some  minor  detail  has  been  omitted;  be  content 
if  the  general  thread  of  the  story  is  continuous. 

By  the  time  the  children  have  reached  the 
fifth  grade,  expect  a  great  deal  of  topical  work 
in  geography  and  grammar.  It  will  be  ex- 
ceedingly difficult  at  the  outset,  but  step  by 
step  you  will  eventually  succeed.  It  has  been 
my  experience  when  teaching  a  fifth  grade 
geography,  that  the  first  attempts  at  descrip- 
tion were  more  than  disastrous. 

112 


CONVERSATIONAL   POWERS 

After  we  have  finished  our  study  of  the  Ama- 
zon river,  I  expect  a  child  to  tell  a  great  deal 
about  it.  Perhaps  the  first  pupil  called  upon 
may  rise  and  say:  "The  Amazon  river  rises  in 
the  Andes,  flows  east,  and  empties  into  the  At- 
lantic ocean, ' '  Then  he  may  hesitate,  look  about 
and  expect  me  to  ask  some  ten  or  twelve  ques- 
tions before  I  can  pump  everything  out  of  him 
that  he  knows  about  the  Amazon.  Which  latter 
action  we  are  prone  to  call  leading  out  a  child. 
This  is  very  good  at  times,  but  is  much  overdone 
by  inexperienced  teachers.  The  time  comes 
when  every  child  must  be  able  to  stand  on  his 
own  feet  and  tell  what  he  knows.  I  often  make 
this  remark:  ''Who  can  talk  for  five  minutes  on 
the  'Amazon  river?'  "  Perhaps  the  first  effort 
will  give  me  a  one  minute  recitation,  and  the 
next  two,  which  will  generally  satisfy  me.  It 
isn't,  you  will  understand,  the  time  he  speaks, 
but  the  fact  that  he  has  learned  to  tell  what  is 
in  his  mind — unburdened  his  soul — and  poured 
out  all  he  knows  on  the  subject  under  consid- 
eration. At  all  times  insist  on  complete  sen- 
tences, whether  the  lesson  be  language,  writing, 
arithmetic,  or  singing.  Thus  language  is  corre- 
lated with  the  other  subjects  in  the  curriculum. 

In  grammar,  after  the  subject  of  nouns  has 


113 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

been  taught,  I  expect  a  child  to  begin  a  recita- 
tion on  nouns  thus: 

*  *  A  noun  is  a  name,  as :  boy,  John,  desk,  river, 
book.  All  nouns  are  divided  into  two  classes: 
common  and  proper.  A  common  noun  is  a  name 
given  to  a  class  of  objects,  as:  book,  chair,  boy, 
dog,  table.  A  proper  noun  is  a  special  name 
given  to  a  person,  place,  or  thing,  as:  John, 
Clara,  Missouri  river,  Wisconsin,  Christianity. 
Every  proper  noun  must  begin  with  a  capital 
letter.  Nouns  are  also  divided  into  the  two 
classes  called  singular  and  plural.  A  singular 
noun — at  this  point  I  would  call  upon  another 
pupil  to  continue. 

After  a  little  practise  of  this  kind  the  chil- 
dren become  independent  and  interesting  speak- 
ers. They  daily  gain  confidence  in  themselves. 
If  found  difficult  at  the  beginning,  do  not  grow 
discouraged ;  remember  my  first  answer  to  the 
topic:  "Surface  of  Mexico,"  generally  brings 
this  remark :  '  *  The  surface  of  Mexico  is  rocky. ' ' 
It  is  not  a  simple  matter  to  describe  intelligently 
so  large  a  portion  of  land. 

When  the  children  have  a  good  vocabulary  at 
their  command,  call  attention  to  the  fact  that 
the  repetition  of  the  same  word  makes  conversa- 
tion monotonous.  Show  the  children  how  to 
avoid  using  ' '  said  he ' '  too  frequently  by  saying : 

114 


CONVERSATIONAL   POWERS 

** replied  the  lad,"  "was  the  father's  remark," 
"said  the  boy  thoughtfully,"  or  the  like.  For- 
bid the  use  of  "and  then,"  "after  that,"  etc. 

Occasionally  have  an  informal  conversational 
chat  with  the  children.  ' '  Who  has  something  he 
would  like  to  tell  us  ? "  This  question  will  bring 
forth  many  spontaneous  remarks  that  will  help 
the  teacher  get  close  in  touch  with  her  little 
charges. 

Our  most  fascinating  speakers  are  not  always 
those  who  cling  rigidly  to  form.  Grammar  is 
the  least  necessary  of  the  four  essentials  to  good 
conversation.     These  four  essentials  are: 

Thoughts,  Words,  Style,  Grammar. 

Let  it  be  our  aim  in  the  language  lesson,  there- 
fore, to  implant  ideas,  arouse  thoughts;  these 
to  be  clothed  in  a  vocabulary  of  choice  words 
pleasingly  uttered  with  an  originality  of  style, 
simple,  forceful,  and  irresistibly  charming. 


Il5 


The  Place  of  Biography  in 
General  Education 

BY  GEOFFREY  F.  MORGAN 


THE    PLACE    OF    BIOGRAPHY    IN    GENERAL 
EDUCATION 

"Not  only  in  the  common  speech  of  men,  but  in  all 
art  too — which  is  or  should  be  the  concentrated  and  con- 
served essence  of  what  men  can  speak  or  show — Bio- 
graphy is  almost  the  one  thing  needful." — Carlyle. 

'  *  Every  person  may  learn  something  from  the  recorded 
life  of  another,  .  .  .  the  records  of  the  lives  of 
good  men  are  especially  useful." — Smiles. 

All  children  are  hero  worshipers  at  some  pe- 
riod of  their  growth.  They  are  all  attracted  by 
any  man  who  can  perform  or  has  performed 
some  deed  of  which  they,  themselves,  are  inca- 
pable. This  is  why  the  boy  who  can  wiggle  his 
ears  or  stand  on  his  hands  is  always  such  a 
center  of  attraction.  But  since  most  of  us  de- 
sire our  pupils'  aims  to  be  higher  than  this,  we 
must  supply  them  with  more  exalted  examples 
of  conduct. 

"Teach  by  example  rather  than  by  precept" 
is  an  old  adage,  and  a  true  one.  Instead  of 
preaching  to  children  concerning  their  duty  to- 
ward God  and  their  neighbor,  let  them  learn 
from  biographies  of  great  men  what  really  con- 
stitutes greatness.  Thus,  by  the  example  of 
those  who  have  gone  before,  they  may  be  them- 
selves led  *'to  strive,  to  seek,  to  find,  but  not 
to  yield." 

119 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

Since  it  is  claimed  that  children  reproduce  in 
their  own  lives  all  the  stages  of  development 
through  which  the  human  race  has  passed,  it 
follows  that  they  will  have  different  interests 
at  different  ages.  The  age  of  barbarism,  which 
is  not  long  passed  the  kindergarten,  delights  in 
warfare;  therefore  the  soldier's  biography  may 
first  be  introduced. 

But  let  us  not  be  misunderstood  in  this.  The 
soldier 's  biography  is  not,  as  many  seem  to  think, 
a  record  of  battle,  murder,  and  sudden  death. 
The  actual  warfare  need  be  little  touched  upon, 
for  it  is  the  character  of  the  man,  his  patriotism 
and  devotion  to  duty  which  are  to  be  studied, 
and  not  his  record  of  slaughter, 

Eggleston  realized  this  when  he  wrote  his 
"Stories  of  Great  Americans  for  Little  Ameri- 
cans," a  book  which  may  be  used  with  success 
in  the  third  grade.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the 
literary  style  is  not  better,  for  the  abrupt,  jerky 
sentences  are  a  barrier  to  good  reading,  but  as 
biographies  of  a  simple  and  direct  type,  they  are 
ideal.  It  will  be  noticed  that  in  his  stories  of 
Putnam,  Marion,  Wayne,  and  similar  fighting 
heroes,  he  has  said  little  of  the  warfare,  but  has 
sought  always  to  emphasize  the  bravery,  nobil- 
ity and  patriotism  of  the  men  who  fought  for 
liberty, 

120 


BIOGRAPHY   IN   EDUCATION 

But  the  interest  in  military  heroes  does  not 
slacken  for  some  time  after  passing  the  third 
grade.  In  later  years  Abbott's  biographies  will 
be  of  interest,  particularly  those  of  Alexander, 
Julius  Caesar,  and  Alfred  the  Great.  It  is  scarce- 
ly necessary  to  call  attention  to  the  value  of  these 
books  historically;  in  fact,  all  biography  must 
be  largely  historical  in  its  nature. 

At  about  the  fifth  and  sixth  grades  the  con- 
structive tendency  begins  to  manifest  itself. 
Now  take  up  accounts  of  some  of  the  inventors. 
Howe  and  his  sewing  machine,  Whitney  and  the 
cotton  gin,  Morse,  Bell,  Fulton,  Stevenson;  all 
these  will  be  of  interest.  Franklin  is  so  com- 
posite a  character  that  he  belongs  in  many 
groups.  His  inventive  faculties  only  need  be 
studied  at  this  time,  as  other  characteristics  may 
be  developed  later. 

Lives  of  explorers  such  as  Boone,  Pike,  Fre- 
mont, Stanley,  Livingstone,  and  Cook  should  be 
studied  in  these  grades  also.  Lead  the  children 
to  see  and  appreciate  the  service  these  men 
wrought  for  mankind  by  blazing  their  way  into 
unexplored  countries.  Livingstone's  life  is  an 
especially  valuable  one,  and  Blakie's  "Personal 
Life  of  Livingstone ' '  should  be  in  every  library. 

A  pupil  once  said  to  the  writer,  *'I  like  to 
read  about  poor  boys  who  work  their  way  up." 

121 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

He  voiced  opinions  of  a  good  many  children  of 
the  same  age,  no  doubt.  (He  was  thirteen.) 
Since  this  is  true,  we  can  do  no  better  than 
introduce  pupils  of  the  upper  grammar  grades 
to  two  of  our  master  minds,  Franklin  and  Lin- 
coln. The  former's  life  is  best  studied  from  his 
own  account,  which  is  received  with  enthusiasm 
by  both  seventh  and  eighth  grades,  while  Lin- 
coln's career  has  been  set  forth  in  numberless 
books  suited  for  almost  every  grade.  The  man- 
ner in  which  these  two  men  toiled  up  from  pov- 
erty is  a  powerful  lesson  for  every  boy  who 
shall  study  it. 

We  prefer  to  leave  to  those  grades  extended 
study  of  these  two  men  in  order  that  their  splen- 
did statesmanship  may  be  studied  and  appre- 
ciated. Of  course  these  distinctions  and  divi- 
sions are  by  no  means  arbitrary.  We  do  not  con- 
tend that  pupils  should  be  told  nothing  of  these 
men  until  they  come  to  the  seventh  or  eighth 
grades.  On  the  contrary,  they  should  be  taught 
to  know  and  love  the  names  of  our  country's 
heroes  from  their  earliest  years,  whether  they 
be  heroes  of  peace  or  war.  But  the  gigantic  skill 
with  which  Franklin  and  Lincoln  helped  to  steer 
the  ship  of  state  through  stormy  seas  can  not 
be  clearly  explained  to  primary  children,  nor 
would  the  record  interest  them  if  it  were  told. 

122 


BIOGRAPHY   IN    EDUCATION 

For  this  reason  it  is  better  to  keep  the  full  ac- 
count for  the  older  grades. 

Nothing  has  been  said  so  far  of  the  biogra- 
phies of  authors.  We  are  always  rather  sorry  to 
see  third  grade  pupils  laboriously  reproducing 
the  biography  of  Longfellow,  especially  as  they 
are  usually  called  upon  to  repeat  the  perform- 
ance in  each  succeeding  grade.  Lives  of  writers 
do  not  possess  nearly  so  many  features  of  inter- 
est as  other  types  we  have  named,  and  had  best 
be  kept  for  more  mature  grades. 

Since  the  place  which  any  study  obtains  in 
the  curriculum  is  determined  by  its  value,  it  is 
well  to  consider  the  benefits  which  may  be  de- 
rived from  a  study  of  biography.  Dr.  Samuel 
Smiles,  whose  own  life,  by  the  way,  may  be 
studied  with  profit,  says  in  his  splendid  book, 
' '  Character : ' ' 

"The  great  lesson  of  Biography  is  to  show 
what  man  can  be  and  do  at  his  best.  A  noble 
life  fairly  put  on  record  acts  as  an  inspiration 
to  others.  It  exhibits  what  life  is  capable  of  be- 
ing made.  It  refreshes  our  spirit,  encourages 
our  hopes,  gives  us  new  strength  and  courage 
and  faith — faith  in  others  as  well  as  ourselves. 
It  stimulates  our  aspirations,  rouses  us  to  action, 
and  incites  us  to  become  copartners  with  them 
in  their  work.     To  live  with  such  men  in  their 

123 


SUCCESSFUL   TEACHING 

biographies,  and  to  be  inspired  by  their  exam- 
ple, is  to  live  with  the  best  of  men  and  to  mix 
in  the  best  of  company." 

And  Longfellow  expressed  the  same  thought 
when  he  said : 

"Lives  of  great  men  all  remind  ua 
We  can  make  our  lives  sublime, 
And,  departing,  leave  behind  us 
Foot-prints  on  the  sands  of  time." 


124 


The  Art  of  Story-Telling  and 
Its  Uses  in  the  School-room 

BY    MIZPAH    S.    GREENE 


THE   ART  OF  STORY-TELLING  AMD  ITS 
USES  IN   THE   SCHOOL-ROOM 

As  soon  as  the  average  child  is  old  enough  to 
read,  literature  of  various  kinds  is  before  him, 
and  he  has  the  pleasure  and  privilege  of  read- 
ing to  his  heart's  content.  If  his  reading  is 
carefully  selected  and  rightly  directed,  it  will 
prove  a  most  valuable  means  of  personal  benefit 
and  education  to  him.  But  altho  reading  mat- 
ter, adapted  to  the  years  and  understanding  of 
the  particular  child,  is  so  abundant,  and  chil- 
dren have  so  many  opportunities  of  reading 
for  themselves,  the  useful  art  of  story-telling 
must  not  be  overlooked  or  neglected,  for  much 
may  be  gained  from  a  story  told  in  a  bright,  in- 
teresting manner,  which  could  not  be  received 
in  any  other  way.  It  makes  the  story  seem  more 
real  and  vital  to  the  child,  more  a  part  of  his 
own  life.  It  comes  to  him  through  the  medium 
of  the  living  voice  and  is  thus  a  living  message 
to  him.  It  is  presented  perhaps  with  numerous 
gestures  and  apt  illustrations,  which  hold  his 
attention  and  arouse  his  ever  active  imagination. 
It  is  accompanied  by  a  pleasant  smile,  or  a  look 
and  accent  of  sadness,  delight,  surprise,  dismay, 

127 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

fright  or  excitement,  as  the  occasion  may  de- 
mand, which  makes  him  feel,  sympathize,  and 
act  with  the  characters  the  story  portrays,  and 
learn  the  lessons  which  they  teach.  I  have 
known  many  a  child,  during  my  years  of  expe- 
rience as  a  public  school  teacher,  who  has  been 
led  to  noble,  unselfish  action  through  the  influ- 
ence of  some  story  character.  I  remember  one 
dear  little  fellow  in  particular  who  willingly 
and  gladly  gave  his  last  cherished  dime  to  pay 
his  younger  brother's  street-car  fare  to  a  school 
picnic,  because  he  was  anxious  to  be  like  ''Brave 
Tom"  in  the  bright,  cheery  little  story  I  had 
told  the  children  only  the  day  before.  Another 
child  in  the  same  room  gave  up  the  use  of  ciga- 
rettes because  some  story  character  was  too 
manly  to  use  them. 

A  story  fascinates  a  child  when  it  portrays 
for  him  the  wonderful  and  the  strange,  the  mi- 
raculous and  the  dramatic,  for  which  he  has  a 
natural  love,  since  they  appeal  to  his  imagina- 
tion. The  mind  of  a  child  is  filled  with  strange 
fancies  and  images;  they  are  a  part  of  himself 
and  often  prove  an  inspiration  to  him.  It  is 
the  duty  and  privilege  of  the  wise  teacher  to  di- 
rect many  of  these  fancies  into  the  right  chan- 
nels and  make  them  a  source  of  benefit  to  the 
child  mind.     She  can  often  find  no  better  way 

128 


STORY   TELLING   AND    ITS   USES 

than  through  the  medium  of  a  good  story.  A 
child's  knowledge  and  experience  are  very  lim- 
ited. A  helpful  story,  appropriate  to  his  years 
and  understanding,  told  in  an  entertaining  man- 
ner, and  in  language  which  he  can  understand, 
will  provide  for  him  new  thoughts  and  experi- 
ences to  treasure  up  in  his  active  little  mind, 
and  use  in  the  days  to  come. 

The  child  mind  has  a  tendency  to  create  ideals, 
and  the  story  may  furnish  the  right  kind  of  ma- 
terial to  develop  this  tendency,  bringing  the 
imagination  again  into  play  and  turning  the 
thoughts  into  new  and  pleasing  channels.  The 
ideal  may  not  be  the  one  in  the  mind  of  the 
story-teller,  but  it  is  none  the  less  valuable  to 
him,  and  tends  to  make  his  life  fuller  and 
richer. 

A  story  to  be  interesting  to  children  must  be 
true  to  life.  The  characters  the  child  finds  in 
real  life  must  not  be  lacking  in  the  story.  He 
wants  something  more  than  the  child-life  in  his 
story  to  make  it  appeal  to  his  idea  of  life,  as  he 
finds  it.  He  has  a  tender,  loving  father  and 
mother;  his  story-child  must  be  helped  and 
blessed  in  the  same  way.  Perhaps  he  listens  to 
his  favorite  stories  at  his  grandma's  knee;  must 
there  not  be  a  dear  old  grandma  in  the  life  of 
his  story  friends?     A  dear  little  boy  has  lost 

129 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

the  father  he  loved  with  all  the  strength  of  his 
young  heart.  As  he  climbs  on  his  mother's  knee 
for  his  evening  story,  he  asks  pleadingly,  ' '  Mam- 
ma, mamma!  tell  me  about  the  poor  little  boy, 
in  the  long,  long  time  ago,  who  didn't  have  any 
papa."  The  little  lad  in  the  story  had  many 
wonderful  experiences,  which  could  never  come 
to  him,  but  they  had  one  common  link  which 
made  the  story-boy  very  dear  to  the  real  boy. 

I  once  asked  a  large  class  of  primary  children 
to  tell  me  a  story  about  a  picture  of  two  little 
girls  that  I  held  up  before  them.  A  thoughtful 
little  maiden  said  anxiously,  ''But,  teacher, 
where  are  the  papa  and  mamma?"  The  picture 
just  as  it  was  contained  no  story  for  her. 

One  reason  why  the  story  arouses  so  much  in- 
terest in  the  mind  of  a  child  is  because  it  pre- 
sents events  to  him  in  wholes.  Thus,  he  is  not 
satisfied  with  parts  of  stories ;  the  beginning,  the 
middle,  or  the  end  alone,  but  he  insists  upon 
hearing  the  complete  story.  A  usually  attentive 
little  girl  showed  her  evident  discontent  and  lack 
of  interest,  while  her  Sabbath-school  teacher  was 
telling,  in  an  interesting  manner,  the  story  of 
David  and  Goliath.  The  child's  dissatisfaction 
was  so  plainly  shown  that  at  length  the  teacher 
asked  a  little  impatiently,  "What  is  the  mat- 
ter, Anna?     Don't  you  like  to  hear  all  about 

130 


STORY    TELLING    AND    ITS    USES 

brave  David  and  how  he  conquered  the  terrible 
giant?"  "You  didn't  tell  us  about  David  as 
a  little  boy,  and  how  he  grew  to  be  so  strong 
and  brave,"  was  the  child's  reply,  followed  by 
a  shower  of  tears. 

Another  reason  why  stories  are  so  attractive 
to  the  child,  is  because  they  often  take  him  far 
back  to  the  happenings  of  the  past.  Children 
are  always  interested  in  hearing  about  things 
that  took  place  "a  long,  long  time  ago,"  or 
"In  the  long  ago  time,"  and  his  favorite  begin- 
ning for  a  story  is,  *  *  Once  upon  a  time. ' ' 

A  good  story  leads  from  the  known  to  the  re- 
lated unknown.  The  child  always  delights  in 
matching  what  he  already  knows  with  the  new 
ideas  and  experiences  that  the  story  brings  to 
him.  With  each  helpful  and  entertaining  story 
to  which  he  listens,  his  knowledge  is  increased, 
and  therefore  his  mind  is  broadened  and  en- 
riched. The  story  develops  the  mind  naturally 
and  normally.  The  knowledge  and  helpful  influ- 
ence are  not  forced  upon  him,  but  gradually,  day 
by  day,  become  a  part  of  himself.  The  story 
may  remain  with  him  for  days  and  weeks,  and 
even  years,  until,  unconsciously,  and  without 
effort  he  has  imbibed  the  truths  and  lessons  the 
story  aims  to  impart  to  him.  From  the  story 
characters  who  are  brave  and  honest  and  true, 

131 


SUCCESSFFL   TEACHING 

the  same  traits  may  enter  into  the  mind  and 
life  of  the  child. 

Children  like  to  hear  a  story  which  strongly 
appeals  to  them,  told  over  and  over  again,  and 
each  time  it  seems  to  mean  more  to  them  than 
ever  before.  The  brave  boy  seems  braver,  the 
giant  stronger,  the  deed  more  wonderful,  each 
time  the  story  is  repeated.  A  wise  teacher  will 
rarely  refuse  to  repeat  a  good  story  when  the 
children  request  it,  for  in  addition  to  the  pleas- 
ure she  is  thus  giving  them,  she  may  be  impress- 
ing upon  them  by  this  repetition  lessons  which 
will  influence  for  good  their  after  lives.  The 
real  end  and  aim  of  all  story-telling  should  in- 
deed be  character-building,  and  stories  which 
tend  to  this  result  can  not  be  too  often  repeated, 
as  long  as  they  appeal  to  the  child's  interest. 

A  good  story  for  children  must  have  plenty 
of  action  and  progressive  movement.  Children 
like  to  have  things  happen  and  * '  happen  quick. ' ' 
They  want  their  story  characters  to  be  in  mo- 
tion; to  be  accomplishing  something.  They  are 
not  interested  in  long-drawn-out  tales,  with  long, 
complicated  sentences,  and  prosy  descriptions; 
but  bright,  spicy,  animated  stories,  full  of  spon- 
taneous life  and  action,  with  a  great  predomi- 
nance of  narrative  over  the  descriptive. 

No  story  should  be  presented  even  to  children, 

132 


STORY   TELLING    AND    ITS   USES 

and  perhaps  I  should  say,  least  of  all  to  chil- 
dren, unless  it  has  a  well  defined  and  carefully 
worked  out  plot  or  plan,  leading  naturally  and 
easily  from  one  incident  to  another;  gradually 
unfolding  itself  step  by  step,  until  at  last  its 
winding  up  shall  be  the  probable  consequence 
of  all  that  has  gone  before. 

The  language  and  material  of  the  story  should 
be  characterized  by  perfect  purity  of  thought 
and  expression,  and  through  all  and  in  all,  a 
true  Christian  spirit.  It  should  form  a  point 
of  contact  with  the  child's  life,  guiding  his 
thoughts  naturally,  until  he  is  able  to  grasp  the 
great  truths  and  problems  of  life.  With  such  a 
story  one  may  hope  not  only  to  interest  and  in- 
struct the  child,  but  to  make  him  a  worthy  rep- 
resentative of  the  race  in  every  respect. 

Finally  I  would  impress  upon  all  parents  and 
teachers  the  inestimable  importance  of  the  art 
of  story-telling,  not  only  in  the  school-room  but 
in  the  home  and  in  all  the  haunts  of  childhood. 
I  would  urge  upon  all  who  are  instrumental  in 
the  training  of  children,  to  make  every  possible 
effort  to  make  their  choice  of  stories  and  method 
of  story-telling  ideal ;  realizing  that  the  real  pur- 
pose of  the  story  is  not  merely  to  give  the  chil- 
dren pleasure,  altho  that  is  of  importance,  but 
to  become  an  essential  factor  in  mind-training 
and  character-building. 

133 


Nature  Studies — The  Various 
Methods  of  Teaching  Nature 

BY    CAROLINE    C.    LEIGHTON 


NATURE    STUDIES  — THE    VARIOUS    METH- 
ODS   OF    TEACHING    NATURE 

My  first  experience  in  attempting  to  interest 
children  in  the  study  of  nature  was  to  send  them 
into  the  school  garden,  and  the  neighboring 
woods,  to  see  how  many  different  shapes  of 
leaves  they  could  collect.  They  returned  with 
many-lobed  oak  leaves,  finely-cleft  silver  maple, 
ribbon-like  willow,  broad  plantain  and  heart- 
shaped  lilac  leaves.  I  asked  if  they  noticed  any 
other  respect  in  which  these  leaves  differed  from 
each  other  besides  in  form,  and  they  pointed  out 
the  serrated  edges  of  the  rose  leaves  and  the 
smooth  ones  of  the  lily,  the  glossy  surface  of  the 
white  birch  leaves  and  the  woolly  mullein.  We 
then  turned  the  leaves  over  and  saw  the  network 
of  veins  so  conspicuous  in  the  maple,  and  the  few 
parallel  ones  in  the  com  blade  and  the  plantain. 

I  next  directed  them  to  a  deep  cut  on  the 
railroad,  where  some  granitic  rocks  were  freshly 
exposed,  and  pointed  out  in  the  specimens  they 
showed  me  the  glistening  scales  of  mica,  the  red- 
dish crystals  of  feldspar,  the  transparent  quartz 
and  black  specks  of  hornblende.  It  was  fasci- 
nating to  them  to  search  for  varieties  of  rock. 
A  serpentine  quarry  in  the  neighborhood  fur- 

137 


SUCCESSFUL   TEACHING 

nished  fine  specimens,  sometimes  streaked  with 
silvery  asbestos,  or  sparkling  with  little  specks 
of  sulphuret  of  iron,  '  *  the  fool 's  gold. ' ' 

Some  of  the  boys,  who  belonged  to  a  manual 
training  class,  made  a  cabinet  to  contain  the 
specimens.  The  girls,  not  to  be  outdone,  col- 
lected money  to  buy  a  microscope. 

Not  far  distant  from  us  flowed  a  sluggish  lit- 
tle brook,  the  home  of  the  ogre-like  larvae  of  the 
dragon  fly,  water  newts,  caddis  worms,  bear- 
ing their  curious  stone  houses  on  their  backs, 
snails  protruding  their  inquisitive-looking  horns, 
whirligigs  and  skippers.  Here  was  a  good  chance 
to  study  transformations,  both  of  insect  and  rep- 
tile life.  The  pretty  orange  and  black  caddis 
flies,  that  live  but  a  day  or  two,  hovered  over 
the  water,  and  many  varieties  of  gossamer- 
winged  creatures  that  had  passed  their  youth 
in  the  black  ooze. 

Occasionally  we  spent  an  hour  dissecting  an 
insect  or  plant,  in  pressing  and  preparing  flow- 
ers for  the  herbarium,  or  in  arranging  insects 
in  drawers  lined  with  cork.  We  were  never  at 
a  loss  for  material.  If  there  was  nothing  else 
before  us  there  was  at  least  the  gutter,  where 
often  some  charming  little  weed  could  be  found, 
the  spurry  sandwort,  the  starry  chickweed,  or 
scarlet  pimpernel,  the  poor  man's  weather-glass, 

138 


NATURE    STUDIES 

as  interesting  in  their  structure  as  any  of  the 
more  pretentious  plants. 

In  the  rambles  which  I  took  with  them,  the 
boys  equipped  themselves  with  geologists'  ham- 
mers, the  girls  with  butterfly  nets.  They  be- 
came quite  skilful  in  the  use  of  the  nets  and  in 
mounting  the  specimens.  As  I  watched  them  at 
their  work  I  thought  they  could  not  but  observe 
what  a  vast  deal  of  ingenuity  had  been  lavished 
upon  these  ephemeral  creatures,  with  their  ex- 
quisite decorations,  and  I  felt  as  if  it  must  give 
them  a  new  idea  of  a  wonderfully  painstaking 
and  beauty-loving  Creator. 

Every  season  furnished  us  with  something  to 
study.  In  the  winter,  provided  with  pieces  of 
black  velvet,  we  caught  the  snow  crystals,  noticed 
their  beautiful  and  varied  forms,  and  were  some- 
what successful  in  drawing  the  simpler  ones. 

In  the  early  spring  we  gathered  buds  from 
the  trees,  observed  the  tarpaulin  coats,  which 
guarded  some  of  them  from  too  much  rain,  and 
the  downy  coverings  which  shielded  them  from 
frosts,  noticed  how  skilfully  they  were  plaited 
and  folded  to  pack  them  in  smallest  compass, 
watched  the  ferns  uncoiling,  and  every  little 
moss  in  the  woods  stretching  itself,  doffing  its 
night-cap  and  casting  off  the  swaddling  clothes, 
which  had  protected  it  through  the  winter. 

139 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

In  autumn  came  the  cocoon  harvest,  when  all 
bushes  and  fences  were  searched  for  moth  cra- 
dles, to  be  carefully  preserved  and  watched 
through  the  winter.  We  examined  the  minute 
flowers  of  the  grasses,  the  microscope  sometimes 
resolving  what  was  utterly  insignificant  and  un- 
noticeable  to  the  naked  eye,  into  a  perfect  little 
lily,  of  such  delicate  form  and  color  that  it 
seemed  as  if  it  must  have  come  out  of  fairyland. 

Autumn  was  the  time  to  inspect  seed-vessels, 
especially  with  the  help  of  the  microscope,  to  see 
how  prettily  they  were  sometimes  ornamented 
with  dotted  geometrical  designs,  and  the  varied 
forms  of  the  caskets  in  which  they  were  stored 
and  in  how  many  different  ways  seeds  are  scat- 
tered— fine  hooks  for  grasping,  little  wings,  as  in 
the  maple  and  ash,  thistle-down  and  dandelion- 
silk  floating  on  the  breeze ! 

Our  first  year's  work  was  quite  desultory,  but 
the  second  year  we  formed  ourselves  into  a  nat- 
ural history  society,  with  departments  presided 
over  by  curators,  and  the  children  kept  note- 
books, recording  their  observations.  Once  a 
month  these  notes  were  read  in  school,  in  place 
of  the  ordinary  compositions,  and  were  listened 
to  with  much  interest,  especially  the  queries, 
some  of  them  suggested  by  the  teacher,  others  by 
the  pupil,  I  having  found  by  experience  the 

140 


NATURE    STUDIES 

truth  of  the  old  idea  of  Socrates,  "Ask  any  one 
a  question  rather  than  state  a  fact  to  him,  if 
you  would  arouse  his  interest." 

A  pine  twig  called  out  the  question,  "Why 
has  the  pine  only  needle-like  leaves?"  Can  you 
think  of  any  reason  why  these  leaves  should  be 
better  adapted  to  it  than  more  expanded  ones, 
of  a  softer  texture  ?  Why  is  its  bark  rough  and 
shagg>'?  What  is  its  native  home,  and  how  do 
these  peculiarities  adapt  it  to  the  situations  most 
congenial  to  it?  Which  of  our  trees  are  natur- 
ally mountain  trees?  Why  are  the  leaves  that 
first  appear  on  many  plants  close  to  the  ground 
— the  root-leaves — quite  different  from  the  later 
ones,  higher  up  on  the  stem?  See  the  rosettes 
of  the  evening  primrose  for  an  illustration. 

You  have  often  been  cautioned  in  transplant- 
ing anything  to  be  especially  careful  not  to  cut 
off  the  ends  of  the  roots.  Do  you  know  why? 
It  is  because  the  root-tip  selects  the  food  of  the 
plant  from  the  soil.  It  is,  as  Darwin  says,  the 
brain  of  the  plant.  You  may  have  noticed  that 
the  rootlets  are  sometimes  very  long  and  strag- 
gling. This  is  because  they  have  had  so  far  to 
travel  in  searching  for  proper  food  or  water. 

I  have  often  wondered  why  the  butterfly 
should  die  directly  after  depositing  her  eggs. 
Many  humble  mothers  in  the  insect  world  are 

141 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

very  attentive  to  their  young.  The  earwig  sits 
upon  her  eggs,  and  eagerly  watches  her  brood, 
the  wolf-spider  carries  her  innumerable  pro- 
geny about  on  her  body.  I  am  afraid  it  would 
be  altogether  inconsistent  with  the  butterfly's 
gay  nature  to  be  waiting  upon  little  caterpillars. 

Who  originated  the  idea  of  the  Zoological 
Garden  ?  It  may  have  been  Solomon,  for  we  are 
told  that  the  ships  that  brought  him  every  three 
years  treasures  from  Tarshish  of  gold  and  sil- 
ver and  ivory,  brought  also  apes  and  peacocks. 
We  know  that  he  was  a  close  observer  of  nature 
from  his  remarks  on  many  animals,  being  deeply 
impressed  by  the  wisdom  of  the  ant  "which  hav- 
ing no  guide,  overseer,  or  ruler,  provideth  her 
meat  in  summer  and  gathereth  her  food  in  the 
harvest.  There  be  four  things, ' '  he  says,  ' '  which 
are  little  upon  the  earth,  but  they  are  exceed- 
ingly wise.  The  ants  are  a  people  not  strong, 
yet  they  prepare  their  meat  in  the  summer.  The 
conies  are  but  a  feeble  folk,  yet  make  their 
houses  in  the  rocks.  The  locusts  have  no  king, 
yet  they  go  forth  all  of  them  by  bands.  The 
spider  taketh  hold  with  her  hands,  and  is  in 
kings'  palaces." 

Sometimes  by  way  of  impressing  them  with 
the  practical  value  of  nature  study  I  read  items 
from  the  newspapers,  or  reports  of  the  Agricul- 

142 


NATURE    STUDIES 

tural  Experiment  Stations  for  instance,  with 
regard  to  the  ravages  of  the  insect  pests,  brown- 
tail  and  gypsy  moth,  and  the  parasites,  the  Tach- 
ina  flies,  just  arriving  from  Japan,  that  are  ex- 
pected to  destroy  them  in  the  larval  state,  by  de- 
positing their  eggs  upon  them.  The  coddling 
moth,  the  chief  enemy  of  the  apple  tree,  will  find 
in  the  seedless  apple  that  science  drives  him  to 
other  modes  of  obtaining  a  livelihood.  The  seed- 
less apple,  being  propagated  only  by  cuttings, 
has  but  a  small  insignificant  flower,  without 
scent  or  color,  with  no  attraction  for  insects. 

Current  events  in  the  natural  world  were  also 
noted,  as  the  success  of  the  Australian  experi- 
ment of  cultivating  clover  by  importing  long- 
tongued  humble  bees  to  fertilize  the  flowers. 
When  clover  was  first  introduced  into  Australia 
it  grew  luxuriantly,  showing  that  the  climate  was 
adapted  to  it,  but  it  was  soon  discovered  that  it 
did  not  seed  and  seemed  likely  to  become  a  fail- 
ure until  it  was  observed  that  the  bees  never 
emerged  from  a  blossom  dusted  over  with  pol- 
len, as  they  should  have  done,  and  by  examina- 
tion it  was  found  that  their  tongues  were  too 
short  to  penetrate  the  deep  tubes  of  the  flower. 
Since  the  long-tongued  bees  have  been  intro- 
duced, clover  has  become  one  of  the  richest  crops 
of  the  country. 

143 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

One  day  I  asked  if  any  of  the  class  could 
draw,  from  memory,  a  butterfly  resting  on  a 
twig.  I  asked  this  question  in  order  to  see  how 
many  of  them  had  observed  that  the  butterfly 
always  holds  its  wings  erect  in  resting.  Some 
of  them  represented  it  with  wide-spread,  others 
with  slanting  wings;  only  one  with  the  wings 
erect.  I  asked  if  they  could  think  of  any  rea- 
son why  the  butterfly  should  take  this  attitude, 
and  they  noticed  that  only  the  under  side  of 
the  wings  showed  and  that  this  was  often  mot- 
tled, grey  and  brown,  while  the  upper  was  bril- 
liantly colored.  The  butterfly  would  attract 
much  less  notice,  and  escape  its  enemies  in  this 
way.  This  led  to  my  speaking  to  them  of  other 
protective  devices  and  colorings,  as  in  the  atti- 
tude which  some  caterpillars  take  when  at  rest, 
clinging  to  their  support  with  the  hind  part  of 
the  body,  and  lifting  and  bending  the  forepart, 
in  this  position  remaining  immovable  and  hardly 
to  be  distinguished  from  a  twig.  The  little  leaf- 
hoppers,  at  rest,  might  readily  pass  for  knobs 
or  excrescences  on  the  trees. 

Hearing  the  shrill  cry  of  a  locust,  some  one 
asked,  "How  does  it  make  that  sharp  sound?" 
I  explained  his  little  violin,  the  strings  being 
made  by  the  projecting  veins  of  his  wing-cov- 
ers and  the  bow  being  his  hind  legs.    The  cricket 

144 


NATURE    STUDIES 

clashes  cymbals  together,  made  by  his  wing  cov- 
ers. The  grasshopper  has  a  little  drum  on  his 
back.  With  insects  only  the  males  are  musical. 
The  females  have  no  musical  instruments,  but 
carry  working  tools.  Most  of  our  simple  tools 
were  in  use  by  insects  long  before  they  were 
known  to  us.  The  saw-fly  is  a  carpenter,  mak- 
ing holes  in  the  leaves  with  a  kind  of  combina- 
tion tool,  saw  and  file  together.  It  is  to  be  found 
in  a  deep  chink  under  the  hind  part  of  her 
body.  She  makes  little  slits  with  it  in  the  stems 
and  leaves  of  plants,  and  drops  her  eggs  into 
them.  You  may  find  her  on  an  oak  tree.  Do 
not  mistake  her  for  a  hornet,  which  she  much 
resembles. 

Do  you  remember  the  little  puffy,  woolly  ball, 
looking  like  a  tiny  pincushion,  white,  dotted  with 
crimson,  we  found  once  on  an  oak  leaf,  and  I 
told  you  it  was  called  "the  pincushion  gall." 
This  growth  on  the  leaf  was  caused  by  a  saw- 
fly  having  pierced  it  to  deposit  her  eggs,  that 
the  little  grubs  might  feed  on  the  sap. 

The  mud-wasp  is  a  mason  and  plasters  her 
clay  cells  against  the  wall.  Each  one  has  in  it 
a  single  egg  and  a  great  many  living  spiders,  so 
liberally  does  she  provide  fresh  food  for  her 
incipient  children.  The  stump-wasp  puts  into 
her  nest  hundreds  of  horse-flies. 

145 


SUCCESSFUL   TEACHING 

The  female  wood-wasp  has  a  borer  in  a  scab- 
bard. It  is  like  an  awl.  With  it  she  bores  holes 
into  the  trunks  of  trees.  Look  for  her  on  a 
pine  or  fir  tree.  She  might  be  taken  for  a  wild 
bee.  The  borer  is  like  a  pointed  bristle.  Some- 
times she  drives  it  with  such  force  into  a  tree 
that  she  can  not  pull  it  out,  but  remains  fast- 
ened to  the  tree. 

I  gave  them  brief  accounts  of  some  enthusias- 
tic naturalists,  hoping  to  awaken  a  desire  to 
know  more  of  them,  as  the  blind  Huber  who, 
with  the  help  of  an  assistant,  made  such  won- 
derful discoveries  about  bees;  the  German  bot- 
anist Eprengel,  who,  noticing  the  hairs  on  a 
wild  geranium  leaf,  first  asked,  "Is  any  pur- 
pose answered  by  them?"  that  question  lead- 
ing finally  to  the  knowledge  that  every  stripe, 
spot  and  variation  of  structure  has  a  meaning; 
Sir  John  Lubbock,  whose  knowledge  of  ants  is 
so  intimate  that  he  confidently  looks  forward  to 
the  time  when  he  will  be  able  to  communicate 
with  them;  Luther  Burbank,  the  California 
wizard,  who  has  evolved  the  fadeless  flower,  and 
whose  latest  achievement  has  been  to  convert 
the  prickly  pear  of  the  desert  into  an  edible 
plant,  furnishing  food  suitable  for  man  and 
beast. 

My  chief  aim  was  to  awaken  in  the  children 

146 


NATURE    STUDIES 

the  idea  of  looking  about  for  themselves,  with 
their  eyes  always  open  for  anything  interesting. 
Sometimes  we  happened  upon  a  truly  novel 
sight,  as  when  we  saw  the  larvae  of  the  golden 
tortoise  beetles  with  their  tails  turned  up  over 
their  backs  on  a  hot  day,  as  if  to  shield  them 
from  the  sun.  We  could  hardly  believe  our 
eyes,  it  was  such  a  droll  sight,  so  we  sent  a  few 
specimens  to  a  learned  professor  in  an  Agri- 
cultural college,  asking  his  views  of  their  curi- 
ous structure.  He  answered,  "I  do  not  know 
that  anything  has  been  positively  ascertained 
in  regard  to  it,  unless  their  tails  are  used  as 
parasols ! ' ' 

One  day  we  opened  the  big  green  pod  of  the 
milkweed,  and  saw  inside  the  semblance  of  a  lit- 
tle silver  fish,  covered  with  brown  scales,  made 
by  the  combined  seeds.  We  had  seen  the  droop- 
ing clusters  of  the  flowers,  but  never  dreamed 
of  what  was  going  on  later  under  the  green  cov- 
ering, how  every  flower  was  depositing  its  scale, 
with  the  silken  thread,  exactly  in  the  right  place 
to  help  fashion  this  curious  little  image.  It 
was  a  lesson  in  nature's  orderly  ways,  not  soon 
to  be  forgotten. 

With  regard  to  birds  and  little  animals,  I 
early  seized  upon  the  opportunity  to  instil  into 
their  minds  the  idea  of  its  being  much  more 

147 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

delightful  to  study  them  alive,  in  their  own 
haunts,  than  in  the  old-fashioned  way,  to  shoot 
and  stuff  them,  and  told  them  of  the  Oswego  boy 
who  calls  the  birds  to  come  to  him  by  imitating 
their  notes. 

On  the  whole,  my  experience  in  trying  to  in- 
terest children  in  the  study  of  nature  has  been 
that  it  is  far  easier  to  teach  them  from  living 
objects  than  from  books,  and  of  immeasurably 
greater  value. 


148 


The  Teaching  of  Phonetics 


BY    ZYLPHA    EASTMAN 


THE   TEACHING  OF  PHONETICS 

In  teaching  phonetics,  we  must  have  at  least 
three  objects  in  view,  namely:  to  teach  the 
sounds  of  the  letters,  that  the  children  may  be- 
come independent  readers,  to  correct  errors  in 
speech,  and  to  form  the  habit  of  articulating 
distinctly. 

Many  children,  on  first  entering  school,  bring 
with  them  more  or  less  **baby  talk,"  which  has 
clung  to  them  partly  because  the  mothers  have 
been  too  busy  or  too  thoughtless  to  correct  them ; 
partly  because  it  is  considered  cunning,  and 
partly  because  they  are  expected  to  "outgrow" 
it  when  they  start  to  school.  Many  children 
have  similar  sounds,  such  as  e,  i,  a,  interchanged 
sometimes  on  account  of  not  being  able  to  dis- 
tinguish between  the  sounds;  sometimes  on  ac- 
count of  parents  having  a  careless  habit  of 
speech,  and  slurring  sounds  or  cutting  them 
short.  Many  children  of  foreign  parentage 
miscall  words  in  everyday  use.  A  greater  num- 
ber than  we  might  at  first  thought  suppose,  mis- 
pronounce on  account  of  informed  teeth,  lips, 
and  mouth. 

Since  it  is  the  duty  of  the  teacher  to  correct 

151 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

these  errors,  she  should  carefully  note  the  errors 
of  each  child's  speech,  ascertaining  as  nearly  as 
possible  the  cause  of  incorrect  pronunciation  in 
each  case.  Perhaps  I  can  give  a  better  idea  of 
what  I  mean  by  mentioning  a  few  examples  that 
have  come  under  my  observation.  A  certain  boy 
who  had  been  in  mischief  all  the  morning  tickled 
his  little  seatmate  in  the  side,  and  made  him 
laugh  in  school.  The  teacher  sent  him  upstairs, 
where  he  reported  that  "Mitt  Willit  tent  him 
up  tairs  for  tittling  a  boy  in  the  tide."  This 
child,  like  many  others,  had  great  trouble  mak- 
ing the  sound  of  "s," — why,  I  have  never  been 
able  to  tell.  By  having  the  child  watch  care- 
fully while  he  made  the  sound,  and  by  showing 
him  how  to  place  teeth  and  tongue,  this  child 
was  taught  to  pronounce  words  having  the  let- 
ter "s."  Another  example  was  of  a  child  who 
gave  the  sound  of  "w"  in  place  of  **s," — the 
only  case  of  the  kind  I  have  ever  known.  He 
called  his  playmate  Sam,  "Wam"  and,  being 
sent  to  the  store  for  a  sack  of  salt,  asked  for  a 
"wack  of  wait."  This  child  had  shed  his  upper 
front  teeth  and,  perhaps,  for  that  reason  he 
got  no  nearer  the  correct  pronunciation  than 
"thack  of  thalt."  A  little  girl  wrote  on  the 
board  such  sentences  as  "This  is  the  book  at  I 
had."  "Mamma  said  it  I  could  go."    Both  mis- 

152 


PHONETICS 

takes  were  the  result  of  indistinct  pronunciation 
on  the  part  of  the  parents.  Another  child  could 
not  pronounce  "s,"  hard  c,  hard  g,  long  i,  (call- 
ing even  the  pronoun  I,  a,  or  / ;  in  fact  he  made 
so  many  mistakes  that  he  found  it  almost  impos- 
sible to  make  himself  understood.  This  child 
had  a  very  peculiar  mouth  and  teeth,  making 
it  very  difficult  for  him  to  make  them  take  the 
correct  position  for  uttering  the  sounds. 

It  is  not  unusual  to  find  in  a  primary  grade 
of  forty  pupils,  three,  four,  or  even  five,  who 
need  special  work  along  this  line.  For  this  rea- 
son, if  for  no  other,  the  phonetic  work  should 
be  introduced  as  early  as  possible  in  the  school- 
work — certainly  during  the  first  month  of 
school.  At  this  age  the  children  are  always 
ready  for  a  game  of  some  sort,  and  will  readily 
try  to  imitate  any  sound  given  by  the  teacher. 
They  are  also  wholly  unconscious  of  what  you 
are  trying  to  do,  and  you  may,  without  any 
fear  of  embarrassing  the  sensitive  child,  pick 
out  pupils  who  are  in  need  of  special  attention, 
giving  them  extra  drill  on  their  weak  points. 

Such  work  may  be  given  very  early,  but  the 
picking  out  of  new  words  by  sound  should  not 
be  done  too  soon,  as  too  much  attention  is  then 
given  to  word-getting,  drawing  the  mind  away 
from  thought-getting.     Let  the  child  learn  to 

153 


SUCCESSFUL   TEACHING 

read  by  the  word  method,  or  by  a  combination 
of  the  word  and  sentence  methods,  and  grad- 
ually introduce  the  phonetic  work  in  such  a 
way  that  it  will  help,  and  not  in  any  way  be 
a  hindrance  to,  him.  This  can  be  done  if  we 
do  not  get  impatient  for  results.  We  must  for- 
ever keep  in  mind  that  thought-getting,  not 
word-getting,  is  what  we  want,  and  that  the 
learning  of  the  sounds  is  only  an  aid,  not  the 
object  in  view. 

Let  us  now  turn  our  attention  to  the  methods 
of  teaching  phonetics.  We  see  a  great  many  lit- 
tle devices,  most  of  which  are  good.  We  are 
quite  familiar  with  the  story  of  the  child  on  the 
farm,  who  heard  the  geese  say  "th,"  "th,"  the 
cross  dog  say  **r-r-r,"  the  angry  cat  say  "f-f," 
the  hot  iron  say  "s-s"  when  put  in  water,  etc.; 
a  being  the  sound  the  baby  makes;  b,  water 
pouring  out  of  a  jug ;  c,  fish-bone  in  your  throat ; 
d,  the  dove  sound;  e,  the  deaf  man's  question; 
h,  the  tired  sound ;  1,  sound  heard  near  the  tele- 
graph pole;  m,  the  cow's  call;  n,  the  calf's 
answer ;  p,  the  puffing  of  the  engine ;  t,  the  tick- 
ing of  the  watch;  w,  the  wind  sound;  z,  the 
bee;  ch,  the  baby  sneezing;  sh,  the  keep  quiet 
sound ;  wh,  blowing  out  the  light. 

The  method  which  I  have  found  most  suc- 
cessful in  my  own  work  is  as  follows:     After 

154 


PHONETICS 

the  pupils  are  familiar  with  a  good  many  words, 
and  can  read  short  sentences,  write  a  number 
of  familiar  words — bat,  ball,  chair,  baby;  for 
example,  ask  some  one  to  bring  you  the  b-a-t, 
taking  pains  to  give  a  natural  pronunciation, 
the  b-a-11,  etc.  When  the  children  can  respond 
readily,  turn  to  the  board  and  write  slowly  the 
word  *'bat,"  pronouncing  each  letter  as  you 
make  it.  You  will  probably  find  the  children 
pronouncing  with  you.  After  much  drill  on 
familiar  words,  let  them  note  the  number  of 
sounds  in  each  word.  The  pupils  will,  by  this 
time,  very  readily  see  the  connection  between 
the  letters  and  the  sounds,  and  will  have  ac- 
quired the  knowledge  in  an  easy,  natural  way. 
I  have  found  that  using  the  above  method  for 
foundation  work,  with  the  story  of  the  sounds, 
for  varying  the  work  and  keeping  up  the  inter- 
est brings  good  results.  Many  object  to  the  use 
of  diacritical  marks  in  the  first  grade,  but  I 
have  found  marking  the  long  and  short  sounds 
of  the  vowels  a  very  great  help,  when  given  as 
we  find  need  for  them. 


155 


The  Value  of  Word-Study  and 
How  to  Direct  it 


BY    E.    S.    GERHARD 


THE    VALUE    OF    WORD-STUDY    AND    HOW 
TO    DIRECT    IT 

"Who  is  this  that  darkeneth  counsel  by  words  without 
knowledge?"— Job  38:2. 

Nothing  seems  more  familiar  and  is  so  little 
understood ;  nothing  is  more  interesting  and  is  so 
little  known ;  nothing  seems  so  insignificant  and 
is  so  powerful;  nothing  is  used  more  lavishly 
and  frequently  with  so  little  effect,  as  words. 
The  American  people  have  justly  been  accused 
of  having  little  linguistic  pride ;  there  is  a  hasty 
unconcern  in  their  speech ;  the  haste  is  a  national 
characteristic,  while  the  unconcern  arises  from 
a  feeling  of  lazy  indifference  and  a  lack  of  am- 
bition and  of  worthy  ideals.  People  in  general 
give  too  little  heed  to  a  proper  use  of  words.  It 
is  painful  to  hear  how  some  of  the  common,  pure, 
sturdy  words  are  mutilated,  like  **dump"  and 
"stupid,"  "party"  and  "person;"  and  people 
who  misuse  these  words  very  likely  commit  the 
still  more  unpardonable  sin  of  qualifying  every 
statement  they  make  with  "nice,"  "awful,"  and 
"lovely,"  the  three  lonely  adjectives  in  their 
meager  vocabulary.  Such  a  corruption  of  lan- 
guage arises  either  from  innocent  ignorance,  lazy 
indifference,  or  affected  knowledge.     In  either 

159 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

case,  a  study  of  words  might  correct  their  igno- 
rance, remove  their  indifference,  and  shame 
their  affectation. 

It  is  by  means  of  language  that  we  share  the 
lives  of  other  nations  and  profit  by  their  exam- 
ple. It  is  through  language  that  we  enter  into 
the  inheritance  of  the  past  with  its  treasures  of 
human  knowledge,  the  discoveries  of  science  and 
the  achievements  of  art.  Surely  it  is  worth 
while  to  study  the  mechanism  of  such  a  vehicle 
of  expression  as  language,  and  especially  of 
such  a  composite  language  as  the  English,  which 
has  borrowed  words  from  every  quarter  of  the 
globe  and  has  an  unparralleled  power  of  assimi- 
lation. 

Language  indicates  the  life  and  character  of 
a  people;  it  reflects  their  history  and  mental 
habit.  The  study  of  words  will  often  reveal  his- 
tory not  recorded  by  language  itself.  It  will 
disclose  secrets  which  would  otherwise  have  been 
lost  forever.  That  demand  is  creative,  is  a  prin- 
ciple that  holds  true  in  language  as  well  as  in 
economics.  The  horseless  carriage,  which  made 
its  first  appearance  about  fifteen  years  ago,  seems 
to  persist  in  retaining  its  questionable  name  of 
"automobile;"  and  with  it  have  risen  the  still 
more  questionable  term  "autoist"  and  "motor- 
ist."   So  the  presence,  or  absence,  of  a  certain 

160 


WORD-STUDY 

word  in  the  historic  languages  of  the  Indo-Euro- 
pean races  is  of  valuable  significance.  These 
races  surely  had  no  words  for  things  that  they 
did  not  possess.  When  one  finds  that  they  have 
common  words  for  the  domestic  animals,  ' '  dog, ' ' 
"ox,"  "horse,"  one  may  conclude  that  the  ob- 
ject was  familiar  to  all  the  races,  provided  it 
can  be  show^n  that  they  did  not  at  a  later  period 
borrow  such  words  from  one  another.  The  in- 
ference would  then  be,  that  these  tribes  must 
have  left  the  hunting  and  fishing  stages  of  their 
life  and  taken  to  grazing  cattle  before  they  mi- 
grated. What  a  world  of  history  is  wrapped  up 
in  the  words  "heathen,"  "pagan,"  and  "mati- 
nee, ' '  and  in  many  others.  History  may  be  dis- 
torted and  falsified  by  words,  but  the  history 
which  lies  latent  in  a  word  is  not  to  be  per- 
verted. "Murder  will  out."  One  of  the  rich- 
est sources  of  historical  knowledge  is  the  study 
of  words.  Philology  has  done  much  to  further 
the  cause  of  history  and  of  knowledge  in  gen- 
eral. It  is  very  likely  that  some  of  the  most 
perplexing  problems  in  history,  if  they  are  to 
be  solved  at  all,  will  be  solved  by  a  study  of 
words. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  and  amusing  as 
well  as  the  most  profitable  studies  of  words  is 
etymology;  it  will  give  the  student  the  history, 

161 


SUCCESSFUL   TEACHING 

biography,  and  primary  meaning  of  words. 
What  a  history  many  of  them  have.  Take  the 
word  "cheap;"  none  is  more  common  or  used 
more  frequently,  yet  very  few  people  know  the 
change  the  word  has  undergone  in  its  meaning. 
Originally  it  meant  a  market  place  where  things 
are  bought  and  sold.  It  still  retains  this  mean- 
ing in  the  word  "chapman,"  a  merchant.  The 
original  meaning  is  also  retained  in  the  proper 
names  "Cheapside"  and  "Eastcheap,"  at  one 
time  the  great  market  places  of  London,  the  his- 
tory of  whose  trade  is  brought  up  at  the  men- 
tion of  these  names.  "Pecuniary"  and  "fee" 
tell  us  of  "ye  olden  time"  when  the  tribes  in 
the  immense  forests  of  Germany  in  their  barter 
used  cattle  as  a  medium  of  exchange.  And  long 
after  the  sand  in  the  arena  has  ceased  to  be 
stained  with  human  blood  from  gladiatorial  com- 
bats, and  long  after  cordage  has  ceased  to  creak 
on  vessels  in  the  naval  battles  of  the  Komans, 
we  are  told  that  this  or  that  man  has  distin- 
guished himself  in  the  arena  of  debate  or  on  the 
rostrum.  People  are  said  to  be  capricious  and 
scrupulous;  that  is,  they  are  in  certain  respects 
like  goats,  and  that  they  may  have  grains  of 
sand  in  their  shoes.  Thus  the  penetrating  study 
of  etymology  will  finally  bring  us  to  the  point 
where  all  language  becomes  figurative. 

162 


WORD-STUDY 

This  study  of  the  origin  of  words  secures  an 
accurate  and  enlarged  vocabulary.  Word-study 
increases  one 's  vocabulary  and  with  this  increase 
there  will  be  a  growth  of  thought-power.  The 
power  of  observation  will  become  greater  and 
that  of  expression  freer.  A  small  vocabulary 
indicates  a  narrow  range  of  thought.  No  two 
things  are  more  closely  related  than  poverty  of 
words  and  poverty  of  thought.  The  individual 
has  just  as  many  words  as  he  has  thoughts.  A 
limited  number  of  words  at  one's  command  in- 
dicates a  narrow  range  of  thought;  it  also  ham- 
pers expression.  If  the  same  word  is  repeated 
continually  the  language  becomes  monotonous 
and  wearisome.  A  vocabulary  may  be  very 
simple,  but  its  variety  will  charm  the  reader  be- 
cause of  its  novelty.  No  one  need  expect  to  be- 
come a  successful  writer  or  speaker  without  hav- 
ing command  of  a  large  vocabulary.  It  gives 
variety  to  style  because  it  enables  the  writer  to 
select  the  proper  words  to  express  his  thought. 
Irving 's  description  of  Hell  Gate  is  a  fine  illus- 
tration of  this  statement.  A  rich  vocabulary 
means  a  wealth  of  thought,  a  variety  of  expres- 
sion, and  the  ability  to  understand  correctly 
those  who  use  many  words  to  express  their 
meaning. 

The  definitions  of  logic  are  disputed  and  vari- 

163 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

ous;  whatever  the  definition  may  be  it  resolves 
itself  in  the  last  analysis  to  a  definition  of  words 
and  terms.  And  upon  the  definition  of  words 
and  terms  depends  the  whole  system  of  knowl- 
edge. A  man 's  knowledge  is  limited  by  the  num- 
ber of  words  he  understands.  It  is  impossible 
to  impart  to  a  man  knowledge  of  a  subject  if  he 
does  not  understand  the  words  which  contain 
that  information.  And  he  who  does  not  know 
the  meaning  of  words  does  not  know  anything. 
Whatever  we  think  or  do  turns  on  their  mean- 
ing. Many  of  the  quarrels  and  disputes  the 
world  over  arise  from  a  misunderstanding  of 
words.  The  great  theological  and  ecclesiastical 
disputes  of  the  Middle  Ages  were  nothing  more 
than  verbal  quibblings;  yet  what  persecutions 
and  tortures  followed  in  their  wake.  The  basis 
of  a  good  education  can  be  formed  only  with 
words  well  chosen,  carefully  arranged,  and 
firmly  fixed  in  the  mind. 

No  language  is  richer  in  synonyms  than  the 
English.  There  is  hardly  a  language  from 
which  the  English  has  not  borrowed  some  form 
of  expression;  and  because  of  this  composite 
character  it  is  very  rich  in  synonyms.  For  this 
reason  the  English  language  has  the  distinction 
of  expressing  every  shade  of  thought  and  feel- 
ing.   These  synonyms  also  give  the  language  a 

164 


WORD-STUDY 

freedom  and  variety,  a  beauty  and  effectiveness 
of  expression  which  would  be  impossible  with- 
out a  large  assortment  of  words  kindred  in 
meaning  but  distinct  in  use.  Nothing  will  show 
the  accomplished  writer  or  speaker  to  a  better 
advantage  than  a  fine  discrimination  in  the 
choice  and  use  of  words.  Style  is  after  all  noth- 
ing more  than  the  finding  of  the  right  word  for 
the  right  idea.  The  charm  of  Gray's  ** Elegy" 
and  of  Whittier's  ''Snow-Bound,"  and  of  many 
more  masterpieces  of  literature  depends  upon 
the  effectiveness,  suggestiveness,  and  exactitude 
of  expression.  This  is  just  what  a  study  of 
words  will  impart  to  the  student,  if  it  is  pur- 
sued in  the  right  attitude  of  mind.  The  use 
of  apt  words  is  the  secret  of  the  successful  and 
effective  writer. 

It  has  been  said  that  a  man  is  known  by  the 
company  he  keeps  and  by  the  books  he  reads; 
with  equal  emphasis  it  may  be  said  that  he  is 
known  by  the  language  he  uses.  A  man's  lan- 
guage reflects  his  character;  in  fact,  it  reflects 
the  man  himself  without  any  regard  for  what 
he  says.  "By  thy  words  thou  shalt  be  justified 
and  by  thy  words  thou  shalt  be  condemned." 
One  unfailing  index  of  a  person's  knowledge,  of 
his  acquaintance  with  literature  and  the  best 
thought  of  the  world  is  his  vocabulary;  it  like- 

165 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

wise  indicates  his  mental  habit  and  power  of 
discrimination.  A  man's  language  is  a  better 
measure  of  his  culture  than  his  manners  are. 
Whoever  has  acquired  a  command  of  the  mother 
tongue  has  attained  the  highest  discipline  and 
culture.  This  command  of  language  embodies 
that  growth  of  mental  development  and  esthetic 
feeling  which  sees  in  all  things  the  true,  the 
beautiful,  and  the  good,  and  developes  a  taste 
for  the  eternal  fitness  of  things. 

The  study  of  words  fs  a  subject  deserving  of 
more  attention  and  effort  than  what  is  usually 
bestowed  upon  it.  Want  of  time,  inadequate 
knowledge  on  the  part  of  the  teacher,  and  a 
feeling  of  apathy  on  that  of  the  pupils,  are  some 
of  the  things  which  have  to  do  with  the  neglect 
of  this  important  topic  of  study.  The  teacher 
who  would  direct  word-study  must  be  well  read ; 
and  above  all,  he  must  be  a  student  of  lan- 
guages. No  language  is  a  dead  language  unless 
it  is  killed  in  the  teaching.  He  must  be  a  scholar 
in  the  strict,  technical  sense  of  that  term.  He 
also  needs  the  keenest  power  of  discrimination 
so  that  he  may  be  able  to  distinguish  the  finest 
shades  of  meaning,  different  forms  and  words, 
as  well  as  appreciate  the  niceties  of  speech  with 
all  their  delicacy  and  precision.  These  are 
among  the  essentials  of  education  and  culture. 

1C6 


WORD-STUDY 

From  what  other  teacher  may  the  pupil  be  ex- 
pected to  acquire  a  taste  for  the  fine  things  em- 
bodied in  words?  To  direct  word-study  prop- 
erly is  to  direct  the  student  toward  that  which 
will  enable  him  to  find  more  pleasure  and  profit 
than  anything  else  in  the  whole  curriculum  of 
education. 

This  is  the  day  of  dictionaries  and  reference 
books.  There  are  several  first-class  dictionaries; 
they  all  have  some  prominent,  distinguishing 
features  which  make  them  almost  indispensable 
and  invaluable.  To  urge  the  study  of  the  dic- 
tionary may  seem  preposterous;  yet  pupils 
should  be  familiar  with  a  few  of  these  diction- 
aries, if  with  not  all  of  them.  Of  all  the  com- 
mendable habits  to  be  formed  at  school  none 
deserves  more  encouragement  than  the  habit  of 
"looking-up"  what  you  do  not  know.  The 
teacher  who  can  direct  and  inspire  his  pupils 
to  develop  this  habit  bestows  upon  them  some- 
thing that  will  be  of  inestimable  value  to  them 
in  later  years.  They  ought  to  use  the  dictionary 
with  frequency  and  ease.  They  should  be  sent 
to  it  whenever  a  question  arises  in  regard  to  the 
meaning  of  a  word  until  they  have  formed  the 
habit  of  challenging  every  word  whose  meaning 
is  not  clear.    Too  many  pupils  are  not  familiar 


167 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

enough  with  +he  dictionary  to  know  its  full  value 
as  an  aid  to  English  composition. 

Word-studj'^  should  also  be  directed  toward 
an  increase  of  vocabulary.  A  good  systematic 
use  of  the  dictionary  will  be  a  real  help  in  in- 
creasing it.  Another  good  plan  is  to  keep  a  note- 
book for  the  express  purpose  of  recording  a  few 
new  words  each  day.  To  add  two  or  three  to 
one's  vocabulary  every  day  may  seem  a  very  in- 
significant number,  but  it  means  several  thous- 
and during  the  high-school  period.  These  new 
words  should  be  followed  by  as  many  definitions 
as  the  pupil  is  able  to  formulate  for  himself, 
and  then  he  should  resort  to  the  dictionary  for 
any  others.  But  a  vocabulary  is  not  fully  one's 
own  until  one  knows  how  to  use  the  words  cor- 
rectly. Pupils  should  therefore  be  expected  to 
use  the  newly  acquired  words  in  sentences  to 
show  that  they  understand  their  use. 

Another  place  where  the  note-book  is  almost 
indispensable  is  in*  reading  the  English  classics. 
In  this  note-book  should  be  entered  all  words 
whose  meaning  and  connotation  are  not  clear, 
and  whose  history  and  etymology  are  interesting 
and  important.  This  does  not  mean  that  the 
beauty  and  literary  charm  of  the  selection  read 
should  be  mutilated  by  turning  it  into  a  gram- 


168 


WORD-STUDY 

mar  exercise  or  into  a  treatise  on  et3rmolQgy ;  but 
if  the  definition  of  a  word  or  the  grammatical 
structure  of  a  sentence  is  not  known,  the  only- 
thing  to  do  is  to  find  it  out.  And  why  not  ?  Does 
it  spoil  the  effect  of  the  selection  to  discover  the 
hidden  meaning  and  suggestiveness  of  some  par- 
ticular words?  These  words  should  be  selected 
beforehand  by  the  teacher  for  the  next  day's 
recitation.  It  may  be  necessary  for  the  teacher 
to  make  frequent  inspections  of  the  note-books 
to  see  that  the  proper  entries  are  made. 

Etymology  may  be  made  a  formal  study  by 
the  use  of  some  textbook.  If  not,  much  valuable 
work  of  the  kind  can  be  accomplished  in  other 
subjects  of  study.  It  is  a  trite  saying  that  every 
recitation  should  be  a  recitation  in  English,  but 
English  needs  to  be  emphasized  in  every  recita- 
tion, whether  in  physics,  geometery,  or  geogra- 
phy. A  search  for  the  etymology,  history  and 
primary  meaning  of  many  words  and  terms  will 
often  be  more  helpful,  and  the  results  more  eas- 
ily retained  than  a  formulated  definition,  e.  g., 
of  "atom,"  ''capillarity,"  "hydrostatics,"  "pe- 
ninsula," "arctic,"  "equilateral."  Latin  is 
taught  in  all  high  schools  and  where  etymology 
is  not  a  separate  study  fruitful  and  profitable 
work  can  be  done  while  studying  the  Latin,  both 


169 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

in  finding  English  derivatives  and  in  observing 
the  discriminations  in  the  meaning  of  the  Latin 
words  themselves;  for  this  latter  purpose  there 
is  no  better  Latin  author  than  Cicero.  In  the 
beginning  Latin  class  one  lesson  a  week  should 
be  devoted  to  the  study  of  the  etymology  of  the 
words  derived  from  the  Latin  words  found  dur- 
ing the  week.  The  same  plan  may  be  followed 
in  the  second  year  Latin  class.  In  the  succeeding 
two  years  it  may  not  be  so  necessary  to  have 
special  recitations  on  words. 

There  yet  remains  the  subject  of  synonyms; 
no  study  will  repay  anyone  better.  Every  school 
library  should  have  a  few  volumes  of  synonyms. 
Crabb's  "Synonyms"  is  a  good  old  standard. 
A  book  of  more  recent  date  and  better  suited 
for  practical  purposes  is  Pernald  's  ' '  Synonyms. ' ' 
The  questions  and  exercises  in  the  second  part 
of  the  book  afford  excellent  practise.  But  the 
best  textbook  is  the  one  the  student  makes  for 
himself  by  gathering  the  words  from  his  mem- 
ory or  dictionary,  and  from  his  reading.  Glance 
down  a  page  of  Maeaulay's  Essay  on  Milton  and 
you  will  find  such  words  as  "reverence,"  "dex- 
terous," "convert,"  "commemorate;"  all  of 
these  are  fruitful  in  synonyms.  A  method  sim- 
ilar to  the  one  suggested  for  the  study  of  ety- 
mology may  be  adopted.    Words  should  be  as- 

170 


WORD-STUDY 

signed  and  the  pupils  should  be  asked  to  find 
synonyms  and  to  construct  sentences  illustrat- 
ing their  correct  use.  All  in  all  the  student  will 
be  benefited  most  by  putting  into  actual  use  the 
words  he  studies. 


171 


The  Educational  Influence  and 
Value  of  Manual  Training 


BY    BURTON    M.  BALCH 


THE   EDUCATIONAL   INFLUENCE   AND 
VALUE    OF    MANUAL   TRAINING 

Not  long  since  the  writer  heard  a  mother,  who 
was  bringing  up  a  family  in  a  remote  and  thinly 
populated  county  of  the  state  of  New  York,  ex- 
press regret  that  the  life  there  afforded  such 
narrow  opportunity  for  ** school  education." 
This  woman  was  not  versed  in  modern  pedagog- 
ical literature ;  yet  the  emphasis  placed  upon  the 
word  "school"  showed  plainly  that  her  good 
sense  recognized  the  fact  that  "school"  or 
"book"  education  was  not  the  only  kind.  Again 
the  good  old-fashioned  phrase,  "book  larnin'  " 
contains  for  us,  and  evidently  contained  for  the 
generation  that  used  it  so  frequently,  a  very 
palatable  reference  to  some  kind  of  "larnin'  " 
that  was  not  "book."  The  old  schoolmasters, 
or  some  of  them  at  least,  did  not  think  that  these 
homely  sources  of  education  could  be  organized 
and  harmonized  with  school  life;  tho  even  in 
those  days  there  were  some  who  did  not  agree 
with  the  conservative  schoolmen.  In  his  essay 
on  New  England  Reformers,  published  in  1844, 
Emerson  very  emphatically  called  attention  to 
the  one-sided  nature  of  an  education  whose  sub- 

175 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

ject-matter  from  first  to  last  was  words,  and 
words  only.  In  1883  Charles  Francis  Adams, 
Jr.,  of  Harvard,  and  George  S.  Merriam,  of 
Yale,  joined  the  protest,  voiced  by  Emerson. 
Each  of  these  scholars  bore  public  testimony  be- 
fore his  Alma  Mater  to  the  effect  that  his  edu- 
cation had  been  sadly  deficient  in  the  training 
of  the  perceptive  faculties.  And  so  the  recipi- 
ents of  what  was  then  and  is  now  regarded  as 
the  highest  culture,  and  the  men  and  women  who 
could  lay  claim  only  to  common  sense,  were  prac- 
tically agreed  upon  the  proposition  that  a  part, 
at  least,  of  one's  education  should  be  obtained 
from  other  sources  than  books. 

On  the  other  hand,  one  of  the  distinguishing 
marks  of  modern  progress  in  educational  en- 
deavor is  the  employment  of  those  agencies  for 
the  development  of  youth  referred  to  by  impli- 
cation in  the  phrase,  "book  larnin',''  of  which 
agencies  not  the  least  is  manual  training. 

But  no  criticism  should  be  passed  upon  the 
old  schoolmasters.  Education  is  so  vital  a  thing ; 
so  closely  connected  with  life,  if  it  be  not  life 
itself,  that  changes  and  reforms  in  its  practise 
are  only  modifications  made  to  fit  new  conditions 
of  living.  In  the  homes  of  our  grandfathers  in 
both  town  and  country,  where  all  the  children 
under  one  roof  observed  and  participated   in 

176 


MANUAL   TRAINING 

many  of  the  occupations  of  life,  there  may  have 
been  no  need  for  manual  training.  But  child- 
life  in  the  modern  city  flat  is  different.  So  con- 
venient is  the  baker,  the  delicatessen  shop,  the 
cheap  restaurant,  that  very  little  is  seen  of  even 
the  commonest  household  occupations,  and  noth- 
ing at  all  of  such  employments  as  spinning,  weav- 
ing, soap-making,  preparation  of  milk  products, 
and  scores  of  others  in  which  every  child  fifty 
years  ago  played  an  important  part.  In  any 
consideration  of  the  necessity  of  manual  train- 
ing, therefore,  these  two  sociological  phenomena 
must  be  taken  into  account:  first,  the  difference 
in  modes  of  life  that  has  resulted  from  mechan- 
ical inventions  and  improved  means  of  transpor- 
tation and  distribution ;  second,  the  fact  that  our 
population  is  becoming  urban — much  of  it  in 
residence  and  nearly  all  in  ideals  and  manners 
of  life.  These  conditions  may  not  be  ideal.  The 
modern  home  may  be  shirking  some  of  its  obvi- 
ous duties,  but  the  education  of  the  young  can 
not  be  enforced  in  the  home,  and  so  there  is  de- 
manded of  the  school  to-day  that  peculiar  service 
which  to  a  degree  the  city  home  used  to  afford, 
but  which  now-a-days  even  in  unpretentious 
country  homes  is  rarely  to  be  obtained.  To  meet 
a  part  of  this  demand  is  the  function  of  manual 
training. 

177 


SUCCESSFUL   TEACHING 

What,  then,  is  the  influence  and  value  of  man- 
ual training,  whether  obtained  in  home  or  school, 
and  what  definite  educational  values  does  it  pos- 
sess? In  the  first  place  let  us  consider  what  it 
is  not  and  some  things  it  does  not  do.  It  is  not 
a  panacea  (which  word  I  use  for  want  of  a  bet- 
ter) for  all  the  mental  ills  of  childhood.  It  won't 
make  dull  pupils  bright  nor  lazy  ones  active, 
tho  it  may  serve  in  either  case  for  the  fulcrum 
of  the  lever  interest.  It  is  only  one  of  many 
factors  whose  product  is  development.  In  other 
words,  any  course  which  sought  to  make  it  the 
principal  part  of  the  curriculum  would  fail  woe- 
fully in  its  attempt  to  adjust  its  pupils  to  their 
environment.  Witness  the  country  boy  who  can 
do  things  with  his  hands  but  can  find  in  no  other 
way  that  graceful  self-expression  which  is  so 
necessary  to  happiness  and  success. 

Manual  training  does  not  prepare  young  chil- 
dren to  use  tools  effectively  enough  to  warrant 
their  employment  as  artisans,  tho  it  should  in- 
spire them  with  a  great  respect  for  the  master 
craftsman  and  arouse  laudable  ambitions  in  the 
directions  of  the  crafts.  Indeed,  if  ever  the 
skill  of  the  workman  should  be  obtained  by  the 
pupil  the  particular  exercise  wherein  it  is 
achieved  loses  its  educational  value  and  the  child 
should  be  started  on  the  way  to  get  skill  in  a 

178 


MANUAL    TRAINING 

new  one.  One  must  crave  pardon  for  a  reference 
to  the  meager  education  of  the  man  who  has 
become  an  expert  at  pegging  heels  on  shoes  or 
running  the  machine  that  does  it. 

Manual  training  does  not  give  much  instruc- 
tion except  in  connection  with  other  studies. 
It  does  make  vital  and  therefore  interesting 
many  subjects  which  are  otherwise  wearisome 
to  some  pupils.  For  example,  if  a  class  engaged 
in  communal  work  makes  a  model  of  a  water- 
shed or  a  planetarium,  what  a  flood  of  light  is 
thrown  upon  the  geography  lesson? 

Manual  training  does  not  make  a  good  center 
for  concentration.  It  should  be  incidental  and 
subsidiary  to  the  arithmetic  and  language  lesson. 
It  affords,  to  be  sure,  a  considerable  field  for  the 
practise  of  measurement  and  computation ;  but 
the  child  should  be  well  grounded  in  principles 
before  he  is  allowed  to  apply  them  in  the  man- 
ual training  lesson.  Otherwise  he  may  make  un- 
necessary mistakes  resulting  in  the  waste  of  ma- 
terial and  thus  defeating  one  of  the  ends  which 
the  teacher  of  the  subject  should  have  in  view, 
the  development  of  habits  of  careful  economy. 
In  the  same  way  accurate  verbal  descriptions  of 
operations  and  objects  are  of  value,  very  much 
as  are  rigid  statements  of  proof  in  demonstra- 
tive  geometry;   but   the   teacher   should   make 

179 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

sure  that  the  child  is  able  to  give  them  before 
requiring  him  to  do  so.  Otherwise  habits  of  in- 
accurate and  careless  statements  may  be  formed. 
In  fine,  the  teacher  should  not  attempt  to  use 
manual  training  as  a  means  of  direct  instruc- 
tion in  other  subjects.  Considerable  stress  has 
been  laid  upon  this  point  in  view  of  the  claims 
made  for  manual  training  by  the  builders  of 
some  educational  Utopias. 

So  much  for  what  manual  training  does  not 
do,  tho  a  desire  to  be  accurate  has  made  neces- 
sary the  statement  of  many  ways  in  which  it  is 
of  value.  A  good  negative  is  likely  to  be  a  pro- 
mise of  a  good  positive.  If  there  are  certain 
things  that  men  or  methods  confessedly  can  not 
do,  there  are  usually  other  things  they  can  effec- 
tively accomplish.  In  stating  the  case  for  man- 
ual training,  an  attempt  will  be  made  to  avoid 
the  anti-climax. 

The  recreation  and  relaxation  obtained  in  the 
shop  are  considerable  factors  in  its  importance 
and  factors  upon  which  it  is  unnecessary  to  en- 
large. The  implications  of  the  words,  recrea- 
tion and  relaxation,  are  sufficient  and  apparent 
even  to  the  uninitiated.  "Rest  without  idleness" 
are  the  suggestive  words  of  one  writer. 

In  the  schoolroom  the  training  in  muscular  co- 
ordination, which  results  in  dexterity  and  should 
180 


MANUAL    TRAINING 

result  in  a  degree  of  ambi-dexterity,  is  organized 
with  a  useful  end  in  view.  In  the  school  yard 
the  boys  play  among  other  sports  the  time-hon- 
ored game  of  mumble  the  peg,  which  name  re- 
fers to  the  penalty  imposed  upon  the  boy  who 
is  beaten  at  throwing  a  knife  into  the  ground 
from  a  variety  of  positions.  In  the  school-room 
his  occupation  is  a  miniature  of  life — activity 
with  a  useful  end  in  view.  In  the  yard  it  is  pleas- 
ure for  himself.  The  first  is  altruistic ;  the  second 
egoistic.  Both  are  good  for  developing  skill. 
Whittling  with  the  knife  has  the  added  advan- 
tage of  a  tangible  result  when  the  work  is  done, 
tho  this  be  only  a  willow  whistle.  The  effect  then 
upon  the  physical  make-up  of  the  child  is  two- 
fold ;  recreative  and  developing.  While  the  brain 
is  resting  the  hand  and  eye  are  being  trained. 

It  has  been  said  elsewhere  that  manual  train- 
ing does  not  give  instruction,  and  with  this  state- 
ment what  follows  may  not  seem  consistent. 
It  does  not  give  much  direct  instruction,  and  to 
impart  knowledge  is  in  no  way  its  raison  d'etre. 
However,  any  course  in  manual  training  that 
does  not  give  the  pupil  both  ideas  and  ideals  is 
a  failure;  ideas  of  the  use  of  tools,  of  the  na- 
ture, adaptability,  and  strength  of  materials  and 
somewhat  of  their  value  in  money,  of  the  com- 
mon devices  in  joining  woods,  and  in  simple  tex- 

181 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

tile  arts,  of  the  necessity  of  co-operating  with 
one's  fellows  if  good  work  is  to  result;  ideals  of 
neatness,  accuracy,  truthfulness,  economy  and 
helpfulness.  Then,  too,  there  is  no  greater  trib- 
utary to  the  stream  of  interest  than  curiosity. 
What  is  so  well  designed  to  arouse  this  as  an 
occupation  that  makes  necessary  actual  hand- 
ling of  materials  gleaned  from  various  parts  of 
the  earth?  By  whom  were  they  gathered  and 
how?  By  whom  shipped  and  how?  The  ques- 
tions that  arise  are  legion.  So  manual  training 
may  link  with  the  work-a-day  world  geography, 
history,  government,  language,  and  other  sub- 
jects that  often  seem  to  the  mind  of  a  child  re- 
mote from  any  practical  use.  It  may  make 
another  lesson  real  and  vital  and  therefore  in- 
teresting. 

Handicraft  consists  in  making  something  with 
the  hand  to  conform  to  a  preconceived  mental 
picture.  The  excellence  of  the  product  depends 
upon  two  things:  the  excellence  of  the  model, 
and  the  faithfulness  with  which  it  is  followed. 
The  former  is  the  manifestation  of  a  more  or 
less  clever  constructive  imagination;  the  latter 
very  largely  of  minute  observation  and  fidelity 
to  what  is  observed.  In  advanced  classes  even 
in  elementary  schools  pupils  are  taught  first  to 
create  their  mental  pictures,  then  to  make  their 

182 


MANUAL   TRAINING 

working  models  or  drawings,  and  finally  to  fol- 
low their  models.  Some  of  the  results  obtained 
in  the  grades  in  New  York  city,  which  are  in 
no  way  exceptional,  as  shown  in  the  educational 
exhibit  at  the  St.  Louis  Exposition,  speak  more 
eloquently  for  the  training  in  imagination,  obser- 
vation and  execution  given  by  manual  training 
than  can  the  pen  of  its  most  ardent  advocate. 

The  ability  to  form  sound  judgments  is  cer- 
tainly an  important  desideratum  in  education. 
How  often  do  we  hear  the  complaint ' '  He  knows 
nothing  but  books."  The  judgments  by  which 
we  regulate  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life  are  not 
formed  as  a  rule  by  literary  references.  A  dis- 
tinguished teacher  of  Greek  once  fell  from  his 
bicycle,  and  in  falling  turned  the  front  wheel 
around.  He  pushed  his  bicycle  home,  a  distance 
of  some  four  miles,  because  he  did  not  have 
enough  mechanical  sense  to  turn  the  wheel  back. 
If  he  could  have  acquired  in  school  the  ability 
to  make  as  good  a  judgment  in  mechanical  mat- 
ters as  it  is  required  to  recognize  in  an  aorist 
participle,  the  first  Greek  form  from  which  it 
is  derived,  he  would  have  been  spared  much  hu- 
miliation in  addition  to  a  long  walk  on  a  hot  day. 

But  important  as  are  the  physical  and  in- 
tellectual aspects  of  the  development  to  be  ob- 
tained by  instruction  in  the  manual  arts,  they 

183 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

are  far  less  worthy  of  consideration  than  the 
ethical  values.  Let  us  regard  ethics  as  applica- 
ble to  modes  of  thought  as  well  as  to  direction 
of  action.  The  tendency  to-day  among  the  young 
people  of  urban  environment  is  to  look  down 
upon  manual  occupations.  The  school  course 
is  very  likely  to  divert  the  energies  of  the  work- 
man's son  away  from  the  channel  in  which  the 
employment  of  those  energies  would  be  most 
remunerative  to  him  and  useful  to  society.  Very 
often,  too,  does  the  hauty  possessor  of  wealth 
scorn  the  practitioners  of  those  homely  arts  who 
make  it  possible  for  him  to  enjoy  his  patrimony. 
It  is  claimed  by  its  advocates,  and  with  reason, 
that  instruction  in  manual  arts  will  restore  to 
the  crafts  that  place  of  dignity  and  honor  which 
is  theirs  by  right  of  age  and  service.  It  may 
avert  the  struggle,  which  some  prophets  see  ap- 
proaching, between  capital  and  labor. 

From  the  lowest  to  the  highest  grades  the  self- 
activity  of  the  child  should  be  allowed  range 
and  freedom.  The  teacher  may  suggest,  expose, 
explain;  never  direct.  Thus  through  the  exer- 
cise of  self-activity,  very  likely  over-bafifled  ef- 
fort and  discouraging  experiment,  the  child 
achieves  one  of  the  essentials  of  character,  self- 
reliance. 

As  Dr.  Adler  points  out,  impulsive  and  desul- 

184 


MANUAL   TRAINING 

tory  volitions  are  characteristics  of  the  criminal 
classes,  and  the  wills  of  children  are  of  this  na- 
ture, which  observation  may  fonn  a  rational 
basis  for  the  somewhat  outworn  theory  of  orig- 
inal depravity.  Only  by  the  process  of  educa- 
tion does  the  will  become  the  servant  instead  of 
master.  One  of  the  most  effective  agencies  in 
will  development  is  manual  training.  Here  the 
child  has  to  reach  an  end  some  distance  off,  the 
attainment  of  which  requires  patient,  persistent, 
organized  effort.  The  road  to  this  goal  is  en- 
livened by  interest,  and  many  a  child  that  balks 
at  the  idea  of  reaching  an  end  through  books 
will  follow  with  delight  the  path  hedged  by 
motor  activities.  And  so  it  learns  to  plan  and 
work  and  wait  to  reach  the  port  of  heart's  desire. 
These  are  some  of  the  educational  values  of 
manual  training.  The  same  pertain  to  other 
subjects  when  taught  by  the  genuine  teacher; 
but  no  other  subject  connects  lessons  intellec- 
tual so  closely  with  life;  no  other  so  well  serves 
a  great  purpose  of  education,  to  adjust  to  the 
complex  industrial  practical  life  of  to-day  in 
which  the  paramount  economic  principle  is  di- 
vision of  labor,  the  simple  creature  of  God's 
making,  known  as  the  child. 


185 


How  Best  to  Acquaint  Pupils 

With  What  is  Going  on 

in  the  World 

BY  JOHN    M.    VAN    DYKE 


HOW   BEST    TO    ACQUAINT    PUPILS    WITH 
WHAT    IS    GOING    ON    IN    THE    WORLD 

This  is  the  most  fascinating  of  all  subjects  to 
teach ;  so,  at  least,  has  it  been  to  the  writer  dur- 
ing his  years  as  a  teacher  in  private  and  pub- 
lic schools,  both  graded  and  ungraded;  a  sub- 
ject that  was  apt  to  interject  itself  constantly 
into  every  branch  of  study  that  he  taught  in 
the  school  room,  a  hobby  that  had  to  be  curbed, 
and  all  teachers  must  learn  to  curb  their  pet 
hobbies.  Yet  the  necessity  of  teaching  syste- 
matically the  world's  current  events  does  not 
seem  to  be  recognized  by  pedagogy;  for,  upon 
how  many  schools  can  one  put  his  mind's  finger, 
in  which  a  certain  period,  however  short,  is  set 
apart  for  the  special  study  of  these  matters,  or 
where  it  is  introduced  into  general  class  work  in 
other  than  the  most  perfunctory  manner? 

Not  being  willing  to  give  up  his  hobby  alto- 
gether, and  never  having  in  the  school  room  suf- 
ficient time  at  his  disposal  to  give  a  full  study- 
period  to  the  subject,  the  writer,  early  in  his 
work  as  a  teacher,  cast  about  him  for  a  plan,  a 
device,  a  means,  by  which  his  pupils,  small  as 
well  as  large,  might  obtain  a  reasonable  knowl- 

189 


SUCCESSFUL   TEACHING 

edge  of  what  was  going  on  in  the  world  from  day 
to  day. 

Much,  it  was  evident,  could  be  taught  in  the 
various  class  recitations,  particularly  those  in 
civics,  history,  and  geography.  But  this  did 
not  go  far  enough.  The  ground  was  not  cov- 
ered as  the  teacher  wished  it  to  be.  Could  not 
something  additional  be  devised  by  which  the 
important  events  that  were  daily  happening 
might  be  brought  forcibly  to  the  attention  of 
each  and  every  pupil  in  the  room  from  the 
youngest  to  the  oldest,  and  that  without  taking 
up  too  much  time?  As  an  answer  to  this 
question,  the  writer  devised  and  used  in  his 
school  work  what  he  called  "The  Daily  Bulle- 
tin Board."  It  was  a  novelty  in  school  work; 
indeed,  so  much  of  a  novelty  that  its  use  is 
unknown  in  pedagogics.  Yet  from  the  first  day 
of  its  birth  in  the  writer's  school  room  it  was 
an  unqualified  success;  and  it  always  was  a  suc- 
cess, no  matter  whether  used  in  the  graded  room 
of  high-class  work,  or  in  the  undergraded  coun- 
try school.  May  the  writer  briefly  explain  his 
method  ? 

One  of  the  blackboards  should  be  set  apart 
permanently  for  the  work.  In  the  modern 
school  room  there  is  generally  abundant  black- 
board space,  sufficient  at  least  to  allow  one  board 

190 


WHAT   IS   GOING   ON 

for  the  purpose.  If  not,  a  roll-blackboard  can 
be  bought  cheaply;  or  one  constructed  of  slate 
cloth  on  a  light  folding  frame.  Let  that  one 
board  be  used  for  no  other  purpose.  It  is  the 
school's  "Daily  Bulletin  Board."  Each  scholar 
has  his  right,  title,  and  interest  in  and  to  its 
surface.  Upon  it  are  to  go  the  world's  events 
of  the  preceding  day.  Whatever  has  been  going 
on  in  the  world  that  is  of  general  public  interest 
may  find  a  place  on  its  surface.  Each  scholar 
is  invited  to  furnish  the  "news,"  and  to  have 
put  down,  in  few  words,  what  he  or  she  deems 
to  be  of  the  most  importance. 

Since,  if  possible,  the  items  are  to  be  written 
on  the  board  outside  of  school  hours — before  the 
opening  of  school  in  the  morning,  or  at  recess, 
or  at  the  noon  hour — at  first  few  may  respond, 
and  the  teacher  may  have  to  assign  two  or 
three  of  the  more  willing  and  advanced  pupils 
to  do  the  work.  But  this  will  not  be  for  long.  If 
there  are  two  pupils  who  have  items  for  the 
board  to-day,  there  will  be  four  to-morrow,  while 
the  close  of  the  week  will,  in  all  probability, 
witness  a  dozen  struggling  for  space  for  their 
"news."  The  board  has  already  become  too 
small.  There  will  have  to  be  an  "  editor. "  This 
high  and  honorable  position  will  be  filled  by  the 
larger   pupils,   selected   from   those   whom   the 

191 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

teacher  judges  worthy  by  reason  of  good  schol- 
arship and  general  ability.  Let  it  be  a  high 
honor  to  be  a  member  of  the  ' '  Editorial  Corps. ' ' 
From  this  corps  an  editor  is  chosen  each  week. 
If  he  or  she  be  a  poor  blackboard  writer,  an  as- 
sistant may  be  appointed  to  do  the  manual  work 
of  writing.  Or,  the  teacher  himself  may  think 
it  best  to  be  the  editor;  in  fact,  if  he  does  not 
have  advanced  pupils,  he  will  probably  have  to 
take  general  supervision  of  the  news.  In  all 
cases,  he  will  have  to  furnish  the  guiding  hand, 
and  keep  the  board  up  to  his  high  level,  and  his 
suggestions  and  advice  will  be  more  or  less  nec- 
essary all  the  time. 

What  shall  go  on  the  board  ?  At  first,  perhaps, 
everything  that  is  submitted  by  the  pupils.  This 
state  of  affairs,  however,  will  soon  end.  There 
will  be  an  abundance  and  an  overflowing  abun- 
dance. Of  course,  the  great  events  that  are  hap- 
pening throughout  the  world  will  have  the  right 
of  way.  But  room  should  be  found  also  for  what 
is  going  on  in  the  county,  and  even  at  times  in 
the  township  and  the  immediate  neighborhood. 
The  daily  events  connected  with  the  war  with 
Spain  had  the  call  for  prominence  in  1898. 
Lately  the  war  between  Japan  and  Russia  called 
for  its  daily  space.  But  war  is  at  an  end — for 
the  present — and  it  is  as  well  for  the  board  that 

192 


WHAT    IS    GOING    ON 

it  is  so ;  for  there  are  many  matters  of  impor- 
tance other  than  war  demanding  every  square 
inch  of  its  surface. 

As  illustrations,  from  the  great  roster  of 
events  might  be  named  the  following:  The 
opening  of  Congress;  important  proceedings  in 
Congress;  the  same  in  the  State  Legislature; 
Cuban  independence;  the  St.  Louis  Exposition; 
the  Lewis  and  Clark  Expedition;  the  Panama 
Canal ;  the  deaths  of  noted  personages,  as  Queen 
Victoria,  President  McKinley,  William  M.  Ev- 
arts,  Gladstone,  Kruger,  Verestchagin,  Maurus 
Jokai,  Abram  S.  Hewitt ;  the  coal  strike ;  the  Bal- 
timore fire;  the  discovery  of  the  body  of  John 
Paul  Jones ;  the  separation  of  Norway  and  Swe- 
den ;  the  Chinese  boycott ;  the  late  eclipse  of  the 
sun;  the  county  fair;  the  fall  election;  the  late 
great  storms  in  the  West ;  the  railroad  wreck  near 
town;  the  finding  of  an  Indian  stone-hatchet 
and  Indian  arrowheads  by  Mr.  Smith  in  the  field 
above  the  schoolhouse;  the  first  robin;  and — 
Tommy,  of  the  sturdy  leg,  solemn  visage,  and 
seven  birthdays,  hands  up  his  slip  of  paper: 
"My  Angora  cat  has  4  kittens."  This  will  have 
to  go  on  the  board,  because  Tommy  has  his  space 
and  he  must  not  be  disappointed;  besides.  An- 
gora kittens  are  rare  birds  in  this  section  of  the 
nation,  and  are  therefore  worthy  of  mention. 

193 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

The  board  should  be  completed  each  day  by 
the  close  of  the  noon  hour.  At  some  convenient 
time  during  the  afternoon  session,  the  teacher 
will  devote  fifteen  minutes,  or  even  ten  minutes, 
to  going  over  with  the  whole  school  the  events 
as  they  appear  on  the  board,  calling  attention 
to  their  geographical  and  historical  relations,  to 
their  importance  to  mankind  in  general,  and  to 
their  interest  to  the  immediate  community  or 
even  to  the  school  itself.  He  will  ask  a  few 
questions  if  he  thinks  proper;  and  it  may  often 
be  advisable  to  assign  subjects  to  some  of  the 
scholars  to  look  up  and  report  upon  the  mor- 
row— but  not  too  much  of  this.  The  teacher 
will  also  call  the  attention  of  the  school  to  those 
important  events  that  have  been  omitted  from 
the  board.  For  the  board's  duty  is  to  bring 
out  the  scholars — it  is  their  board — and  hence 
the  teacher  may  find  it  best  to  give  no  aid  what- 
ever in  furnishing  the  matter  for  it;  his  only 
office  being  to  select  the  best  that  is  offered,  and 
to  reserve  his  criticisms  for  the  few  minutes 
given  to  him  in  the  afternoon. 

In  placing  the  news  on  the  board  the  editor 
will  need  to  acquire  the  art  of  brief  expression ; 
following  closely  the  style  of  the  headlines  as 
found  in  the  daily  newspaper. 

On  Friday  afternoons,  or  once  a  week,  there 

194 


WHAT    IS   GOING   ON 

should  be  a  general  review  of  the  week's  chief 
events.  This  review  should  be  in  the  form  of 
questions  and  answers,  and  should  be  made  a 
regular  lesson  as  near  as  practicable, 

A  last  question  will  arise :  How  can  the  pupil 
obtain  the  items,  the  news,  that  he  is  to  provide 
for  the  board?  The  writer  never  found  any- 
trouble  on  this  score.  Hardly  a  scholar  but 
has  access  to  a  daily  newspaper,  morning  or  eve- 
ning edition,  or  at  least  to  a  tri-weekly.  The 
teacher  is  surely  a  subscriber  to  some  daily, 
which  will  be  useless  on  the  morrow,  and  which 
he  will  be  glad  to  hand  over  to  his  pupils.  Then, 
there  are  the  parents — the  home  folks — upon 
whom  it  will  do  no  harm  to  turn  loose  the  in- 
quiring mind.  If  the  pupil  once  becomes  inter- 
ested in  the  subject,  there  will  be  no  end  to  the 
energy  with  which  he  will  browse  around  for 
news.  Not  all  will  do  it  ?  Certainly  not ;  surely 
not.  But  there  will  be  enough  and  to  spare.  As 
has  been  said,  the  trouble  will  be  not  a  dearth, 
but  an  overflow. 

It  must  not  be  understood,  however,  that  the 
''Daily  Bulletin  Board"  was  devised  as  the 
sole  recourse  for  giving  instruction  in  the  world's 
current  events,  or  as  a  substitute  for  teaching 
them  in  the  regular  class  recitations.  There  is 
hardly  a  subject  taught  in  any  school  curriculum 

195 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

that  does  not  offer  constant  opportunities  for 
bringing  the  subject  forcibly  to  the  pupil's  mind 
and  attention,  opportunities  for  which  the 
teacher  should  be  constantly  watching,  and 
which  he  should  use  freely. 

Civics,  history,  and  geography  are  the  chief 
studies  that  bring  them  oftenest  and  most  prom- 
inently to  view.  But  they  are  not  alone.  A  few 
e.  g.  's  will  show  how  numerous  are  the  teacher 's 
opportunities. 

In  geography:  The  recent  discovery  of  the 
great  natural  bridges  in  Utah ;  the  camphor  pro- 
duction and  market,  greatly  affected  by  the 
war  between  Japan  and  Russia;  the  war  itself; 
the  return  of  Fiala  from  the  north;  the  depar- 
ture of  Peary  for  the  north.  In  Physics:  The 
"X"  Ray  (electricity)  ;  the  airship  (aeronaut- 
ics) ;  the  danger  that  is  menacing  Niagara  (hy- 
drostatics). In  composition  and  I'hetoric:  The 
spelling  reform;  the  new  style  of  omitting  per- 
iods and  other  marks  of  punctuation  at  the  end 
of  titles,  etc. ;  the  admission  or  the  banishment 
of  a  new  word.  In  physiology:  The  mosquito 
and  the  yellow  fever.  In  civics:  The  recent 
exposures  in  the  government  service  in  connec- 
tion with  the  publication  of  cotton  statistics; 
the  selling  of  advance  information  concerning 
crops    to    certain    speculators;    the    election    of 

196 


WHAT    IS   GOING   ON 

Mayor  Dunne  of  Chicago,  and  its  relation  to 
public  ownership  of  franchises;  railroad  re- 
bates; the  beef  trust.  In  mathematics:  The 
late  eclipse  of  the  sun,  with  an  explanation  of 
the  general  method  of  calculating  the  distances 
between  the  celestial  bodies  (trigonometry).  In 
bookkeeping:  The  troubles  in  insurance  mat- 
ters, and  the  methods  by  which  the  business  of 
great  companies  have  been  mismanaged — or, 
had  we  not  better  pass  by  all  explanations  by 
which  books  and  accounts  can  be  manipulated 
to  show  false  accounts  and  statements?  Is  it 
ever  well  to  aid  the  young  mind  in  learning  how 
to  violate  the  laws  of  our  land  and  still  keep 
out  of  jail  ?  Is  it  not  better  never  to  let  crimes, 
no  matter  how  great  they  may  be  or  how  much 
space  they  may  fill  in  the  daily  newspaper,  come 
up  for  discussion  in  the  schoolroom?  Certainly 
they  can  not  go  on  our  '  *  Daily  Bulletin  Board. ' ' 
But  while  the  method  of  teaching  the  world's 
current  events  in  class  recitations  has  its  value, 
and  is,  so  far  as  the  writer  knows,  the  only  one 
in  general  use,  it  has  its  objections  and  its  de- 
fects. Chief  of  these  is  its  lack  of  system — con- 
tinuity— order.  It  is  not  a  regular  subject,  a 
regular  study  for  the  pupil  to  look  forward  to. 
His  mind  is  not  impressed:  he  is  not  interested. 
To-day  he  may  learn  much ;  to-morrow  nothing ; 

197 


SUCCESSFUL    TEACHING 

and  much  is  left  out  altogether.  The  observant 
teacher  soon  perceives  that  he  is  not  covering 
the  ground  nor  securing  satisfactory  results. 
Yet  what  remedy  does  he  have?  To  form  sepa- 
rate and  special  classes  is  clearly  an  impossi- 
bility. 

So,  while  in  no  way  neglecting  this  method, 
while  employing  it  to  its  fullest  usefulness,  we 
return  to  our  device,  our  plan,  our  means,  by 
which  our  pupils,  small  as  well  as  large,  may 
obtain  a  reasonable  knowledge  of  this  all-im- 
portant subject. 

Is  the  Daily  Bulletin  Board  only  theory?  is 
it  impracticable  ?  No ;  it  is  not.   Try  it  and  see. 


198 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

305  De  Neve  Drive  ■  Parking  Lot  17  •  Box  951388 

LOS  ANGELES,  CALIFORNIA  90095-1388 


Return  this  material  to  the  library  from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


Form  L-n 

20m-12, '39(3386) 


'OSKUk 


LB 
1025     Successful 
^QA.      t-.ftQp.hlng. — 


AUG  2  6 195? 

JAM  2  4^95? 

UCLA-Young   Research   Library 

LB1025   .S94 


L  009  604  633  9 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA    001  225  51 


7  0 


LB 

1025 

S94 


H  !Vti 


m 


